my first EVER class

it's been quite a long time coming, but today I taught my first class

my first class was for staff and service users of a learning disability day service as a part of learning disability week celebrations.

to say I was nervous about my first class could possibly be the understatement of the millenium, i was absolutely BRICKING it.

practice practice practice, that's pretty much all i've done for the past 2 weeks - if you fail to prepare then you prepare to fail and all that jazz. my playlist had changed about 27 times since i got asked to do these classes, there was even a last second substitution last night after a lightblub moment during Lyna's class.

so I arrived at the venue at about 9:45am, class to start at 10, was nervous as hell but once i was in there, said hello to some of the service users and staff and started setting up they all just went away. there ended up being about 20 service users and 10 staff.

i got some background music playing and within seconds half of the service users were out on the floor dancing along, I kinda knew then that most of them were pretty up for this and that in itself eased my nerves a lot. others came up to me and started talking about samba and salsa dancing, evidently it's something they've been talking about at the day services.

just before we started i was approached by the day services manager asking if it was OK to get some photos taken, kinda felt like a celeb for 30 seconds while i posed with the class!

so once the photo session was over with we got started, explained quickly a little about Zumba, how they're not there to learn how to dance so it doesn't matter if they go the other way to me, however they move is perfect etc that they're there to move to the music and to have some fun. brief safety rundown etc and away we went.

it became obvious within about the first 10 seconds of the limbering section of the warm-up that although most were fairly unrestricted physically, cognitive ability level was lower than I had prepared for, so already the old grey matter was planning ahead for the rest of the routines of the class and the modifications i'd need to make. I wouldn't say I needed to take it to Gold level, but for the vast majority of routines they were kept at absolute basic steps level with limited additions of directional changes etc, i deliberately chose routines that had fewer longer sections so the same movement could be repeated over and over, and for the most part i'd say that worked well with this population group.

I was quite surprised as to the routines they found easier to deal with, it ended up being the routines i was sure they'd manage no problem that i ended up having to modify. eg Pegate they managed with minimal modifications to the original routine, yet Do You Dig It was taken right right down to absolute basics only.

my last minute substitution, Para No Verte Mas, ended up probably being the most popular track, I had a wee girl in a wheelchair with obviously quite profound disabilities dancing her wee heart out to this track in particular, it was a sight that would make your heart melt!

i need to remember to add more arms in on the belly dance track for those less able with the legs...

clapping

clapping was a big thing in this class, they all loved a good clap along to the beat and was something those who didn't want to take part in the actual class even joined in with, so ended up putting clapping in anywhere i could!

cardio got to a reasonable level, I certainly worked up a good sweat anyway, but i didn't want to push them too hard - these are people who are generally used to pretty sedate lifestyles, I didn't want to push them too hard and a) scare them off from potentially wanting to go to classes on a regular basis or b) end up having them dying on the dancefloor!!

I remembered to talk to the class- giving praise and words of encouragement, I even remembered to cue (well, for the most part anyway!).

some would possibly say the amount of praise i was throwing out verged on condesending, but I meant every single last word of it. I really do feel they all did fantastically well considering none of them had ever been to a Zumba class before and i was ever so proud of every single one of them for taking part, for showing their ability and unique flair! and believe me, these guys had flair!!

when class was over I had the vast majority of service users approach me and told me how much they enjoyed it, they even presented me with a little gift to say thank you which I was totally not expecting! i did my little speech to say thank you and announced that this was my first ever class, that they made it really special for me and that i'd always remember it for being the most amazing experience. i later had staff approach me and say they were surprised to hear that was my first shot at teaching - so phew, i must have actually done reasonably ok!!

to be honest, i didn't really even care if I was crap (well I did, but...) the point was the service users enjoyed it, and that's what the day was about for me, it wasn't about me trying to prove my abilities to myself or anyone else, it was about encouraging movement (ie exercise) in a population which has a shockingly high rate of obesity due to needless sedentry lifestyles, this was to prove they CAN do it if given the oppertunity to do so.

it was probably the best first class you could wish for, working with a population group who don't judge you, who aren't there with the mindset of being there to get fit, burn calories etc, they're just there to move to the music and have a good time. true exercise in disguise!

i approached the wee girl in the wheelchair and asked her if she had enjoyed it, said that i'd spotted her joining in and how well she did, she didn't have any verbal communication but her face said everything. this was evidently a young woman who loved her music and loved a good boogie and coming to class opened up a whole new world of music to her.

after class we broke for lunch, went down the street for a roll and caught up with the learning disability nurses who i've not seen since my first placement of 1st year (i go back to them next week, I can't wait!).

I was grinning like a loon for probably about 7 hours after the class finished.

then the adrenaline wore off and i crashed- big time... ended up taking to my bed at 5pm and sleeping for 2 hours!

all in all it was an absolutely fantastic experience and i whole heartedly encourage other instructors to approach their local learning disability services about classes.

i learned a lot from today from my wee first class guinea pigs, some modifications to make for my next class on thursday, but i think what i mainly took from today is how completely and totally sure I am that working with people with learning disabilities is just the BEST work in the world, whether it being Zumba or nursing - this it is for me. totally.

ZIN Day - Glasgow - 07/05/11

Well I though considering a few of my friends have posted to their blogs about Saturday, I would too! It is a day I’ll never forget but already the smaller details are beginning to fade…

My day started bright and early…. Well less of the bright and more of the early really, 4:30am! Quick shower and dressed and out the door for 5:40 (yes an hour and 10 is ‘quick’ for that time of the morning!!) – slight detour into Prestwick to pick up two fellow ZINs, Mary and Gillian, and then off up into Glasgow!

I’d already done the route and found the venue the day before, which Lyna gave me a bit of a ribbing for, but when it’s THAT early on a Saturday morning, the last thing I wanted was to get lost! So we arrived and parked at just about 7am, arriving about 20mins earlier than I anticipated. Got to the venue and there were already 3 people in the queue ahead of us, so we stood around and stood around and stood around some more waiting for 7:30 to arrive when registration was due to open, 7:30 came and went and we were still standing there – Donna came out to say there was a slight delay, the Zumbawear shop hadn’t finished setting up… from the queue we could see all the people involved in organising and running the day posing away in front of the Zumbawear poster (yes you lot were spotted!!!)… anyway about 10 to 8 we finally got let through.

Got registered and my neon pink wristband and went to stand in line, held place while Mary and Gillian went off to raid the shop. Mary came back with my ZIN day t-shirt which I then started to cut up while standing in line, it wasn’t a great job- scissors were just the standard ones I happened to have still sitting in my bag from Lyna’s birthday and working off your lap isn’t the best table… but managed to get something semi-decent from it.

Then we got let in.

This really is the only part of the day where I have a grumble to share. Behind the registration desk was a sign saying “please queue here” so that’s where we queued, only to get into the hall to find ALL the doors had been opened and people who had come in well over an hour after us had got into the hall before us! Not chuffed to put it mildly…

Anyway, we still got reasonably close to the front.

After a wee while of standing around things began, THE Tanya B came out and said her big hello, sending all the ZINs wild and off we launched into the Masterclass – the atmosphere in the room was nothing short of electric!

For those not in ‘the know’ Tanya is one of THE master instructors from America- she’s on most of the publicly available DVDs, she’s one of the founding members really, having worked with Beto from back when Zumba was in its infancy, working incredibly hard to make Zumba the name it is today, so THAT’S why her being in Glasgow was such a big deal and instructors were using their elbows to get close to the stage! (they weren’t really, we are all civilised people, but it probably wasn’t far off it! Lol)

During the class both Lyna and Mary got shots up on stage with Tanya, Mary told me afterwards she was so scared she spent most of the time trying not to throw up!! lol

After the masterclass we had a wee break and cue change of t-shirt #1! I cut up my top a little more and while I was doing this I was approached by a lady asking if I’d mind cutting her top, unlike my top, which was massively too big and needed taking in, hers was too small and she wanted it loosened off, so took the scissors to her top and the end result was reasonable.

We had a wee info session with the head people from Zumba home office- where they’ve come from and where they’re going, a pep-talk and a real grounding from Tanya, that woman really is an inspiration to us all! Lyna also got a wee shot up on the stage to spread the word about the Zumba Jammers, who they are, what they do etc etc

Then we had a break for lunch, I am not sure how much of a lunch break Tanya got as there was a queue about 100 people long to get their photo taken with her!
I took a wee wander into the Zumbawear shop, not really intent on buying anything but interested to see what some of the new range looked like ‘in the flesh’ – while in the shop I got pounced on by Lyna who I think was trying to exact revenge on me for embarrassing her on her birthday during class lol she showed us her ‘zip-up all the way to above your head’ hooded vest-top/windbreaker type thing and had a wee dance around the shop, yes I can certify the woman really is as bonkers as she is in class!

Bumped into the woman I’d cut the top for in the shop as she was showing it off to the Zumbawear people (who asked me how I did the designs! Lol), I was approached again by another lady asking me to do her top too! We ended up having a wee t-shirt cutting workshop going! I cut a top for Mary too.

Next on the schedule was refresher session in warm-ups and cool-downs, which there is a hell of a lot more to than you really would ever think as you take part in class, cue changes of tops #2 and #3! Our ZES (Zumba Educational Specialist- the instructor who trains the instructors) Donna took the stage with Tanya for part of both of these to demonstrate different ways of going about warm-ups and cool-downs, she really got the crowd going, it was amazing to see and hear the support for her, we’re really proud of our own!!

The warm-up session was hard going, by the time we got to the 3^rd stage of the warm-up a lot of us were beginning to flag, there were a lot of comments about being exhausted and being ready to go home…. Mary and I had both brought changes of clothes with the thought of possibly going out afterwards, but by this time we knew we’d be calling it day when the event finished.

Then Mo took the stage!

Words cannot describe this man, seriously!!!

A lot of people were unsure about the African dance session of the day, had heard a lot of people saying about leaving before it, but I think all in all it ended up being the crowd favourite! Considering most of us had been on the go for about 12hrs come this point, and a lot of us were totally exhausted, the way he got everyone moving…. It was unbelievable! Even more so considering he never uttered a single word throughout the entire class.

And then… the day ended. And what a day it was! Well worth getting up at 4:30 for! I made 3 new friends thanks to ZIN day, I refreshed some of my skills and knowledge, got a wee confidence boost, I taught people how to customise their tops and I burned about 2 million calories from dancing my ar$e off for hours!

Gillian went off to her party and Mary and I headed back to Ayrshire. Had a phonecall from Lyna when I got in, but it didn’t last long… was so tired I was actually struggling to get comprehensible sentences out, which gained a few chuckles. My brain knew what it wanted to say but my mouth was just like “stuff this, too much like hard work” lol

But probably most importantly from ZIN day, I realised how lucky I am to be a part of this mad family we call Zumba! mad as all the members may be, I wouldn't swap it for the world!

my first bash instructing...

...didn't exactly go brilliantly!

but to be fair, I was taken rather unawares. was dancing along to 'zumba he zumba ha' with everyone else when Lyna came over from the centre about 20 seconds into it, said "middle!" and i got thrown into the centre to lead the rest of the routine!

tell ya this now- it was scary! you think you know a routine but my mind just went totally blank! thankfully though it's a routine we've been doing for a few weeks so even when i had a complete mind blank moment 90% of the class just carried on. I kept looking back at Lyna (out of habit or desperation I don't know, lol) but was just told "i'm following you"- i really was on my own - it's a good job I can laugh at myself...

along with the mind blanks i totally forgot about cueing, which Lyna quite subtly reminded me of by yelling "which way are we going?!" Lol cueing isn't something you ever have to worry about as a participant and i discovered that the 'cue before you do' can be hard when you cannae remember what move comes next! lol

all in all, i didn't do great... my friends said i did fine but i know they're just saying that, BUT it was my first time and it's all a learning process, i got chucked in at the deep end and lived to tell the tale. learned to swim much the same way and i ended up being pretty good at that so there may be hope for me yet!

but OMG.... what a buzz!! we were in the gym so it was HOT in there, but come end of the class I think I could have easily gone on a few more routines!

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when you're so tired you could cry...

it's been a while since I've been at that stage, but last night I was there.

Caelan's not well - he came to me yesterday morning saying his throat was sore - not a usual complaint of his - and as soon as he lifted his head I could see his glands bulging from his neck. i suffered from tonsillitis frequently as a kid so this instantly got alarm bells ringing... but it was odd that apart from the sore throat he wasn't actually ill

but i decided to err on the side of caution and phoned my placement to say I wouldn't be in and got him an emergency doctors appointment. doctor confirmed that it's a pretty nasty case of tonsillitis and he's now on a 10 day course of antibiotics.

I went off to Zumba last night with him munching away quite happily to some cheesy pasta- the next time I saw him it was quite a different sight!

it was about 11:30 and I was just about dozing off when I heard him yelling from his room that he'd been sick, went through and what a sorry sight my wee boy was- white as a sheet, drenched with sweat, shivvering... the works

I delt with Caelan while Paul stripped the bed, gave him some more calpol and ibuprofen and we cuddled up on the sofa for a while.... well I say a while - until nearly 3am! my god kids TV is rubbish at that time of night...

I started really struggling to stay awake and so once one of the absolutely awful programmes had finished I hiked us both back to our beds, I felt horrible for it, he was wanting to stay with me, but I needed to sleep and I wasn't going to get any on the sofa. of course as soon as I got him into his bed he started being sick again.... anyway, got him sorted and settled and he went to sleep pretty quickly...

until just gone 5am when I woke to him yelling he'd been sick again- went through to him and he asked about going downstairs with me, again I felt absolutely horrible for it but I had to say no, I was so tired I could have cried, I was pretty much falling asleep on my feet!

I have some vague recollection of Paul coming through at that point as it wasn't far off the time he'd be getting up anyway, so he gave Caelan some more calpol and resettled him.

of course despite falling back into bed I never really got back to sleep, brain on over-drive of the checklist for the morning of all the people I needed to call - I'm on placement at the moment so it's a bit of a bugger, but the plus side is that because I'm on in placement within a school they fully appreciate the fact that kids get sick and when they're sick the best place for them is at home.

I guess I'm quite lucky, apart from when he had pneumonia when he was 14mths old (which landed him in hospital for a couple of days) he's never really been REALLY ill, not to the extent where he's just cuddling into my side feeling totally sorry for himself and me feeling awful wishing there was something more I could do, but as I told him I know what it feels like to have tonsillitis, I know how awful he feels, but there isn't really anything more I can do, we just have to wait for the medicine to start working - the wee boy is being an absoulte star patient, he's only complained a couple of times, other than that he's just been lying on the sofa, sipping water, watching TV, taking his medicine and just getting on with getting better.

and he is still being an absolute sweetheart - it's my birthday on thursday and he got quite upset that we wouldn't be able to go out for a birthday meal because he's ill, of course at his age your birthday is just about the most important day of the year, and he just can't understand why I said not to worry, we'll just have it on another day when he's better.... i'm quite happy to postpone my birthday and stay 28 for a few extra days ;)

*$&"^%("&$^£*£ SNAKE!!!

that frigging snake of ours has given me a few extra greys today.

i was already pretty harassed this morning as the stuff i put in the tumble with the intent of wearing today hadn't dried, and it seemed every 3 seconds i had a boy banging on the door asking for something... then Kieren came to the door

"the snake's escaped"

i'm standing there doing my make-up, in nothing but a towelling dressing gown and hair up in a towel turban!

so i dash down the stairs asking where he saw the snake - "next to the photos"... in our living room that really doesn't narrow it down any.

I spot him hanging off of one of the photos on the wall next to the TV just in time to see him disappear behind the unit.

some of the units behind the TV have no back in order for the cables to get from dvd player, sky box etc to the TV... but of course those on ground level all have their backs.

eventually it was just a case of removing the ferret from the room, shutting the dogs out, plugging the gap under the door and just dealing with it when i got back from placement.

it was quite funny going into placement, when people asked the usual "how are you today" to explain about the escaped snake - cue many horrified looks and questions of "are you SURE it's not in your bag?!" lol

i had expected on getting home to have to search for ages before finding him - and was pleasantly surprised to find him within about 3 seconds of being in the room - he was just about to clamber into one of the toy draws.

so back he went into his viv and a jammed on of the lamps up against the door.

2hrs later i hear an odd noise, look up and see the snake half way out of his viv! he's evidently discovered the weak spots on the door and now has the strength to wedge himself into the gap and prise it open!

so now he's safely secured away in the travel carrier we use for the ferret, it has a lot of ventilation holes but none are big enough for him to get his head out of, let alone his body... so that's going to be his home until we get new locks for the viv!

he is still trying to get out but he's not gonna manage it.... i hope!

lol we had enough people weary enough about coming into our house with our unusual collection of pets.... i think there's gonna be a fair few more now who will point blank refuse to come anywhere near our house with there being a chance of having a snake wandering about freely!!

when it's been one of those days!

and boy has it been one of those days!!

woke up to snow
car wouldn't start
had to foot it quick-style to get C to school
it was hailing really heavily
I was 10 mins late for placement
because I have a curtosy phone I didn't have the school's number to let them know
went straight into a PE lesson
go hit in the face with a basketball
straight into a drama class
kis in class very hyper and not even listening let alone doing anything asked of them
3pm it was chucking it down
was soaked before i got anywhere near creche
walking down the highstreet a car hit a puddle and splashed me up the legs
picked C up from creche after he'd only been in 20 mins
text from D asking to get picked up - despite the fact he saw us leaving on foot.
it continued to rain the whole way home
soaked to the bone and frozen solid by the time we got in the door
still no first aid certificate in post
boys come in and instantly start with all the questions

so now i am gradually thawing out.
I had intended on going to both the regular and toning zumba classes tonight but not going to be able to make the regular class now as I have to wait for P to get home with the new battery for my car... ho hum... don't think i'd have had the energy anyway after the day i've had!

so my day has been pretty crap... hopefully it will end on a better note!

do you ever have a reoccuring theme in your dreams?

i do, and it's an odd one too.

a loose tooth at the back of my mouth... hanging on by a thread most of the time

i've lost track of the number of dreams i've had where this has made appearance.

it's odd - coz i don't have any lose teeth, and considering adult teeth have roots and aren't like baby teeth that are held in by the gum- why would it be hanging out just by a thread?

last night I was in a dream about a Zumba training ('big surprise!' i hear you say, but this is the first dream I can ever remember having about Zumba) it made yet another appearance.

i got fed up with it and yanked it out!