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My First Day of Work

Today I started my first day at work, and since I have done some volunteer work around here before from time to time I had a general idea of what I needed to do and what was expected from me.  When I first arrived I had noticed that everyone working there immediately began doing their own thing to help prepare the classes that were about to take place.  Though at first I wasn't sure what I could do to help prepare so I asked one of my friends and fellow employees John what I could do to help prepare for the classes.  He told me that while he works on cleaning the mats I could start off by taking out the trash and replacing their bags.  It was a simple enough task, and since there were about four trash cans throughout the building I was able to finish fairly quickly (It would have been sooner but I didn't know where to look for the fresh trash bags).  After wards I went to ask John what else I could do to help (Also my mentor arrived about five or ten minutes after John and I arrived, John also has a spare key in case we arrive before he does).  John told me that I could vacuum the floors and while I do that he would be outside blowing leaves off of the sidewalk.   Though I have never taught a whole class before I got to start the classes off with warm ups and after that I felt that I had gotten better at this, since it had turned out a little bit better than I had hoped.

Day 2 at Work

My mentor is my karate instructor; Anthony Brewer.  He was a 6 time national martial arts champion, and currently the manager and owner of the Team Brewer Karate martial arts studio.  By what I know a typical day for Mr. Brewer from the time he's here would be; greeting everybody that is here, getting dressed, teaching most of the classes with the other instructors  assisting him.  Although other days he will be working either attending the front desk helping out customers with any questions or concerns they may have, or he will be in his office with important phone calls for either ordering supplies or scheduling and having meetings meetings with customers.  He was very interested in martial arts ever since he was a kid.  He would practice martial arts all the time growing up.  He said that he had to get a business degree in order to open up his karate school and he knew that all of that hard work he had put into getting his degree  was all worth it.

Day 3 at Work

My main responsibilities at my workplace are cleaning, assisting with teaching and making sure that everything is done before I leave.  Some of those things are taking out the trash, mopping the mats signing attendance cards and recording how many people came to each class for that day, and also refilling the water bin when it's getting empty.  I am also sometimes in charge of starting warm ups in some of the classes mainly the little kids classes.  Even though I still need to work a little more on my teaching skills and being more enthusiastic with the kids like the other instructors I still try my best to be a good teacher at the very least.

Day 4 at Work

For my WLE project, I plan on recording the process a white belt goes through in order to get their second belt and show how that student grows little by little throughout the this process.  My mentor Mr.Brewer helped me come up with the idea and I'm very eager to get started on it.  My general Idea for this project is to find a new student that had recently gotten their white belt and taking photos of that student as they progress to the next level that is a yellow belt. 

Day 5 at Work

Today at my WLE I did most of the usual stuff, cleaning the mats taking out the trash, warming up the little kids class, etc.  Though when my mentor and I were talking about what I was going to do for my project we discussed some of the things that I might need for the project, such as a camera that can both take pictures and record videos, and a student that will be willing to let us take pictures of them and record their growth rate.  So far I do have my camera, but it can take a limited amount of pictures and a VERY limited amount of recording time.  So I could either take a lot of pictures or I can take one video each time I come over and try to put them all together.  In the end I decided to use the camera system to record the student's growth through photos.

Day 6 at Work

At my WLE I feel that the two leadership skills that we focus on the most are collaborating productively and thinking critically.  I feel that I've been using the first skill very well because I've been able to work together with all of the other co. workers very well, and when ever I work together with any of them things always seem to go by smoothly.  I feel that I could use thinking critically better because for a while I feel I had a little trouble starting warm ups because I would sometimes end up running out of ideas, so sometimes I would have the kids do certain exercises until I think of some more exercises or until one of the other more experienced instructors came in and took over.  I believe that my mentor used communicate powerfully because when you first see him in action, you notice that he has the kind of voice that projects itself and shows everybody that he is in charge of things though