Now almost two weeks into this project I’m already finding it hard to remember exactly what I hypothesized my project experience would look like. I do remember being worried about the details of planning my weekly schedule and hoping to fulfill the minimum 25 hours weekly, but not about what I thought I’d actually be doing. Nevertheless, I am extremely happy with how it’s turned out so far. I have a busy schedule working with Luis Hernandez, the middle school PE teacher, which spans from 8:30 to 3:00. This goes from Monday through Friday, but as there are fewer middle school PE classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have been lucky enough to be able to join the lower school sports classes as well. I’ve had an incredible experience working with lower school gymnastics teacher Elise Knudson as I have joined in on some classes with the kindergartners all the way up to 4th grade. This has also been preceded by the morning dance classes with Deborah Damast, in which I’ve occasionally been able to work alongside Olivia Propp in observing the younger students’ dance classes, something I believe she will be leading later on in her senior project.

It has been very fairly tiresome working with younger students but I don’t regret the decision one bit. What fascinates me is the incredible patience most teachers have with the children as there can be classes in which immense joy (in a gymnastic aerobics class) can turn to classwide unhappiness when there is even the slightest mishap. And in the middle school, observing how slowly but surely some students from 5th-8th grade, begin losing interest in sports games like dodgeball as they try to act as if they are “too cool” for fun anymore.

Before starting the project, I wondered if I’d have days with little to do, but I’m very glad to say that this has not been the case. Walking back and forth between the lower school, middle school, high school, and Thompson gym and working in the PE classes has kept me busy in just the right way. Almost every moment has been engaging and interesting as you really don’t know what to expect in the day to day classes. I’ve met some incredible students as well as some incredible teachers, including Yukie Ohta, the LREI archivist. Yukie emailed me some really interesting photos and documents from the older LREI sports curriculum, dating back to the seventies, as well as a presentation made by Yukie together with former teacher Peter Heinz, which has all been very interesting and a great help to my senior project.

In the coming weeks, I will continue working with all PE teachers as I have been, hopefully getting to know the students, teachers, and LREI sports pedagogy even better. From then on I look to begin conducting my documentary film. This will include both students and teachers and I hope to get a variety of people involved in the documentary, regarding sports at LREI. I plan to record visual interviews during the students’ recess time, and I will need to check for the availability of the faculty. I don’t really know how it will go but I am excited and prepared to adapt however need be…