Fun Club charity class

OK so I did the charity class yesterday for the Fun Club - not as many people turned up as we'd have liked but i was quite happy with the class size for the size of the hall. it meant they all had a good amount of room to move and also meant i could work on the floor and not on the stage (the notion of being up on a stage still rather freaks me out!)

when i initially got there there was no-one around, had a wee wander about in my neon get-up, attracted a few odd looks.... but nope - no doors open, nothing... odd considering it was 2:15 and we were meant to have the hall from 2pm was beginning to think I'd got the address wrong!

so sat about for a while until I saw Paula, phew! relief! was at least at the right place!

she'd been there since 2 and had gone in search of someone to open the doors. eventually at about 2:25 someone turned up.

so off we went in and set up, i got some Zumbatomic tunes going for the kids while we adults had a good chin wag.

had a few familiar faces show up - Sanna (from uni) and her hubby, Lynseyann and Sharon from Lyna's class. was great to have them there for support but at the same time absolutely terrifying lol

we didn't get going until about 3:20, they wanted to hold off a bit to ensure we got as many people through the door as possible.

the class went really well! had a real mix of participants, young-uns to the 'not-quite-so-young-anymore-but-still-young-at-heart', all fitness levels. my 2 oldest participants up the back were brilliant, gave it what they could and laughed their way through the entire class! i even had FOUR men in the class! yes, you read that right FOUR!! lol

i had read on one of the Zumba instructors' forums about needing to give 150% to get your participants to give 75% and let me tell you this - that is EXHAUSTING! by the 4th song in I was already beginning to feel it and was seriously beginning to wonder if i'd make the end of the class, especially as i still had a good few high energy songs to come! but you pull it from somewhere... not sure where... the enegry of the participants keeps you going i guess, especially when you do give it a bit of welly and you see them laugh at what a prat I must have looked hehe :)

and on the 6th song in - I blanked - and of all songs to blank on - Me Gusta! FFS.... *rolls eyes at self* *facepalm* etc etc, it was only a couple of seconds, but for me it felt like half the song, I was really beginning to panic and nervously announced "i can't remember the steps!" to which i got a lot of laughs (thankfully!), but once the intro had passed it all clicked in and off we went.

all the participants were great, loved seeing all their wee confused faces when the steps got a little more complicated and even more the look of satisfaction when they got it. they really were a good crowd, it was a pleasure to instruct to them!

at the end I had quite a few come up and speak to me which was lovely, it's always great to get feedback especially when you're still pretty new to instructing - this was only my 4th class!

- had comments of 'working muscles i didn't know existed', others asking about classes, participants who'd never been to a Zumba class before saying they'd enjoyed it, i even had a lovely message through FB from one of the participants saying how she'd been to a class before and had been put off of Zumba from it but came to the class to support the cause, and that she enjoyed so much ('converted'!!) that she wants to give it a go again :)

i totally believe there is an instructor out there for everyone, it's just a case of trying out different ones until you find one whose style you like- Zumba is all about being yourself, showing your own unique flair, and that goes for instructors as well as participants.

I have been moved to near tears, absolutely genuinely blown away by the comments i've been recieving, I am SO happy people enjoyed the class! I always get so so so incredibly nervous before a class, these comments really do mean ever so much to me.

all in all between the class, the raffle and the "guess how many sweeties in the jar" £134 was raised for the Fun Club which will go towards a trip for the kids to legoland next year - Well Done everyone!!

life was simple once upon a time, a long time ago...

today we were through in Livingston for Paul's work's family fun day, they're a big american company so they really go for all that sort of stuff, it was good, but not anything to write home about.

on the way back we did a tour of houses the boys have lived in, including through in Livingston, Wishaw and Stonehouse.

Caelan was born when we lived in Stonehouse, I loved living there, the village is wonderful, but we were rapidly outgrowing our small 3 bed semi and there wasn't anything more local that suited our requirements that we could afford.

we had a massive back garden, it really was huge, we had a good 4m x 7m decking outside the back door and that didn't even put a dent into the garden.

i regailed Caelan with stories of water fights we would have in the garden (usually me trapping Kieren in the top corner and attacking him with the hose!!), how we spent SO much time out there playing with the dog, with the tents....

and then Caelan said "why do we not do that now? life is boring now, all i do is go to school, come home and go on my computer or watch tv"

of course that's not his life every day... but unfortunately that is his life for a lot of it...

life was a lot simpler back then, I had a 9-5 nursery job which was only a couple of miles away, Paul worked from home, the boys attended a wee school just 200m down the road... we didn't have anything that ate into our precious family time.

now if i'm not at uni/on placement, i'm studying, or travelling, and if i'm not doing any of those then i'm usually sitting with my brain oozing out of my ears really not in any functionable state to do anything other than drool.

it's suddenly made me feel very guilty for wanting to better myself, which i know is stupid, but it was so saddening to hear him say what he did. i have realised that things have changed a LOT over recent years, and me being in Uni has been accounted for a lot of that, but i guess i never realised quite how he actually felt about it all.

really given any choice in the matter i'd be a stay at home mum, i'd go out volunteering during the day but always be there for my kids when they left school, i'd be there to do activities with them, to teach them life skills they wont learn in the classroom, i'd be there to play with them and have spontaneous water fights. instead i'm never in, and when i am i'm so tired all i manage to do is tell them to give me some peace.

god i feel guilty right now.

when exhaustion hits...

i've pretty much been on the go solidly since the beginning of semester B/trimester2 - ie, new year.

we never really got a proper holiday between semesters B and C as we had to take our uni holidays when the schools were off, which meant most of us had our 'holiday' in dribs and drabs in the middle of placement, and so as a result, it wasn't really a holiday as we still had placement and uni work to worry about.

add to that my sems B and C overlapped by a week as i got an extension for my sem B essays...

i'm now 1 week into my final placement of 2nd yearand I am absolutely done in and have no idea how i am going to make it to the end of 2nd year. i just need to get through this placement- 5 more weeks, 1 more essay, and that'll be 2nd year over and done with.

but at the mo I just don't know if i'll make it.

shattered doesn't even come close. I have completely and totally burnt out.

as if i wasn't burnt out from uni, Caelan's not been well lately either, 2 nights this past week he's been up most of the night throwing up and yet come the daytime he's been fine.

last night i managed to kick paul out of bed to deal with him, considering i dealt with Caelan last time, plus paul was working from home today - but still, i woke up whenever it was Caelan started being sick (i didn't look at the clock) and never really got properly back to sleep.

placement is going good, i'm back with the team i was with for my 1st placement of 1st year, same mentor too, but now my mentor is based in the Girvan end of south ayrshire... so most of my day is spent in the car, it's about 20 miles into town to get to the CLDT base, and then anywhere between 20 and 35 miles down to wherever we're going that day... so most days i'm travelling between 80 and 100 miles.

and today i had to traipse into uni to hand in my essay (we had to hand it in electronically too, so quite why we need to hand in a paper copy too i dunno), so again today i was on the road well over 100 miles.

only saving grace is that because i'm solely based with the community team and not with a family, only 40 miles of most of my days is my petrol, the rest is the nurse's. if i were placed in a family of my mentor's caseload all the miles would be mine.

that's glasgow caledonian logic for ya, place me in a relatively near-by team (20 miles away is near-by by rural scotland standards!) but in a sub-team which covers many many miles away.

i've got a charity Zumba class next weekend and i'm not sure where i'm gonna find the time to practice for it.

as it is i've had to cancel going to a Zumbathon this sunday as i'm going to a family event thing at Paul's work on saturday and I NEED at least 1 day to really just try and rest and re-gather my energy.

my bedroom looks like a chinese laundry, clothes get as far as coming out the tumble but then get dumped back in the big washbaskets waiting for me to gather up the enegry to sort and fold it all. - there's about 4 of them now and i'm trying to ignore them in the hope they'll sort themselves....

2 classes, 1 day

it was a busy Zumba day for me again yesterday.

i had a half hour demo at the north ayrshire learning disability awareness week celebrations, it was lucky i got there early as it transpired that my slot had been moved forwards and i hadn't been told!

so i walked into the Volunteers Rooms in irvine and OMG - it was SO busy, loads of stalls and LOADS of people!

spotted loads of familiar faces, nursing staff, carers, clients... it was one of those days where i saw loads of faces I knew and struggled to place a few of them. it was nice to catch up with some of the nurses i'd worked with last year, even had one ask about where i was going for my year long 3rd year placement and if i'd consider going back to the north team. chatted to a few service users i'd got to know from my 10 weeks with the north team too, most of them recognised me but couldn't recall where they knew me from.

anyways, we got started with the Zumba, had about 20 starting out, wide variety of ages but generally ability level was a lot higher than tuesday's class so routines were yet again modified to suit the needs of the group.

yet again, some real characters started to stand out, mainly males I must say!! i think I've probably had more men taking part in these 2 classes than most instructors get in a year!! there was a small group of young male service users who i spent an afternoon with while on placement last year who joined in after the first couple of routines despite being all shy initially when i'd asked if they were gonna join in, they really got into it which was a great laugh. it's interesting how i've found from these 2 classes how it's actually been the guys who have really got into it!

about half way through during a water break i got approached by a woman who asked me to find her after i was done so that we could talk putting on some Zumba classes, i assume she must have been from a day services - unfortunately come the end i couldn't track her down, i hope she manages to get my contacts through one channel or another...

so we finished the half hour slot and the physio department took over the floor to do some games, i had a couple of the service user participants come up and chat to me about Zumba, one already goes to 3 different classes and raved about how much she loves it, she even showed me her entry into the artwork competition which was Zumba based! :)

then got approached by a woman who turned out to be Paula, the lady I'm doing the charity class for in july, I had seen her daughter running about (her long flame red hair makes her difficult to miss!) but didn't know she was there herself, so it was nice to put a face to the name. am really looking forward to doing that charity class :)

on the way out I caught up with Lisa, who I'm at Uni with, who had been doing massages all day and looked shattered - i think in general we're all just hitting exhaustion stage now and cannot wait for our holidays in 6 weeks.

then ran into a guy (support worker) who i knew i knew from somewhere but couldn't for love nor money work out where from, he came up to me and pretty much said the same thing - we are both student nurses but in different years... on different branches... at different unis.... so it evidently wasn't that... we ended up backtracking our careers and it transpired we worked at Daldorch (a residential school run by the national autistic society) at the same time, which would be why i found it so hard placing him considering i've not worked there in 4 years, plus i'm pretty sure he worked in a different unit, so knew him as a face in passing but didn't actually know him.

that's one of the benefits and downfalls of having been in so many community placements - you certainly 'get your face known' which is obvs a good thing, esp when it comes to future jobs, but it gets to the stage you know so many people in passing....

I went and picked Caelan up from school in my Zumba attire, which attracted a few odd looks.

I covered a standard class in the evening for Gillian (Zumba Ayr), only 6 people turned up but to be honest i wasn't really expecting a huge turnout, according to Gillian it's never usually a huge class and between those going to see take that, those who decided not to go considering it was a cover instructor and those who made the most of the sun... but it was a reasonable class, had a range from those pretty much brand new to Zumba to one who had evidently been going for a long time, but i'd say most of the participants fell into the first category so i kept things quite simple and added more empahsis and flavour slowly throughout the routines, letting them get the hang of the basics before adding the umph, the lady who'd evidently been going a while just gave it welly throughout once she knew what step went where, which was fine by me.

this was my first hour long class, so this one for me was the real test, especially so as it was my 2nd class of the day added to the fact i wasn't feeling all that well.

i survived the class, managed to get it pretty much bang on to the hour and everyone left sweaty and smiling, so i think i did OK.

i had one of the ladies stay and speak to me at the end, saying how it was only her 3rd class and how she finds it easier to follow when the instructor is facing the same way as them, which I agreed that some routines are a lot easier to follow trickier leg moves when the instructor is facing the same way. i did the whole of baila, menea y goza facing the same direction as the class, as well as stand by me as i knew the legs would be easier to follow in the same facing. she said she's still at that stage where her legs get in quite a muddle but that it's probably just a case of practice - i told her of the number of times i've tripped over my own feet, landed myself on my backside etc when having '2 left feet' days.... i ended up doing a fair stint of the static stretch along side this lady as she was having difficulty working out what leg went where and what leg bent and where you put your weight to get the optimal stretch out of the muscle, which she said she really appreciated.

it made me realise that despite my deep hatred of mirrors, they do serve a purpose - it would have been nice to have faced the same way as the class so that it was easier for them to follow my moves but still be able to see what they were doing - i felt i needed wing mirrors or something!!

i did remember to cue for the most part again too - though for some reason I struggled more with the cuing for this 2nd class.

it does make me laugh, both classes I did cinco letras, both i started off doing the legs very slowly and when i said "shall we take it up a level, go a bit faster?" there was this nervous laughter, but they all managed.

come the end of the day to say i was sore was an understatement, i didn't get a great sleep last night either due to the ache in my legs, but after a day of relative rest they're already feeling a bit better. wine is helping too.

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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