KIN 3143

Professional Development Presentations

2012-04-26T18:46:39Z

Honestly I went into these presentations expecting to be bored and hear a lot of the same things. But I was presently surprised. There was a lot of diversity in what people did. It was interesting to see what kind of fields kinesiology students are planning on going into. I especially enjoyed hearing about people who shadowed coaches as that is one of my areas of interest. Occasionally I feel like I do a lot of work coaching a 9th grade baseball team. But I am just on the ground floor of coaching work. It is time consuming and unless you make it big time it probably does not compensate fairly with the time required. Some people really went all out and committed more time than the minimum 8 hours and that probably is a good measuring stick to how much they enjoy their prospective career (although class schedule probably played a part with that too).

The presentations were diverse, informative, interesting, and in some cases funny. People were creative in how they put their experience together and many in the class asked good questions. The whole experience was beneficial to me both in my own project and in learning about other people's projects

PD Presentations

2012-04-25T16:31:06Z

Throughout all of the presentations I learned a lot about the many different careers and jobs in sports. For example, I never knew how much work actually went into being a football coach at a division I university. I knew that the head coach would obviously be a very stressful job but I never imagined that some of the position coaches and coordinators often work up to 20 hour days during the season. I was very surprised to learn that information and all of the sacrifice that goes into their jobs. As a quarterbacks coach I would think that during the season you may have 10 to 12 hour days but I never imagined that someone would work multiple 20 hour days. Football especially seems to be the sport in which the coaches and players commit the most time. It was also very interesting to learn about how many of the coaches got the jobs they currently hold. The presentation today the 25th about a sport coordinator in Australia was incredibly interesting. i have always wondered what the high school dynamics and sports life are in other countries. Australia from what I heard seems to be very similar to the United States in that they offer a large variety of sports for everyone to participate. Their structure also seemed very similar to us here in the states with each state of Australia broken up into regions and then those regions have their high schools and teams. I think that the variety of different job shadows and presentations gave me a good insight into many of the jobs and fields that I may have never considered or known much about. This project as a whole was a great experience for me and in my own experience reassured me of what I want to do after graduation. These presentations were very interesting and something that was definitely beneficial I think to everyone in the class.

What I Learned

2012-04-25T14:18:30Z

I think the coolest thing that I witnessed while watching all the professional development presentations was how much passion everyone had about their project. I liked how big of a variety of professions were covered. It's interesting hearing what everyone wants to do with their lives. One thing that was mentioned in most of the presentations was the importance of networking. I believe this to be true in any career, not just in those pertaining to athletics. As a prospective teacher, it is important for me to network among teachers and parents and administration.

Presentation

2012-04-25T12:46:57Z

The presentations have all been informative and interesting. The flexibility of the project allowed everyone to do something that they enjoy and are more than likely looking to do in the future.
Many people were very informative and the information shared was interesting and learned a lot about the various careers that people within the class were looking to get into. getting an indepth looks behind the scenes of these jobs was the neat part.
For the marketing part of Gopher sports, the networking and extensive communication further exceeded what I would have expected. For training, while being on the football field it was interesting to hear about the injuries that they deal with on a daily bases and the life of a highschool coach and teacher was a project that i could completely relate to. Being that I am going to school to become a physical education teacher and coach I would love to some day be in the same position as that teacher.

Career Learning

2012-04-25T11:06:55Z

The presentations that have taken place over the last three class periods have shown the range of interests people within our class have for future careers. One thing that stood out that I also noticed in my own job shadowing experience was the amount of communication involved in many careers. A lot of people spoke about the constant flow of emails and phone messages that must be responded to and that it is quite a time consuming process. Because so much communication is involved, its essential for us to develop these skills and to be able to work with a variety of people.
Another skill that is important to the success of many of the careers was to be able to have a range of abilities. For example, being a high school or college coach doesn't just involve coaching. You must be able to budget, plan training and match schedules and recruit, just to name a few!
These presentations have taught me that even if you think you know what you want to do, its essential to seek out experiences that will allow you to find out more. This can help you gain the knowledge needed to help you decide what career is for you.

What have I learned?

2012-04-25T05:37:42Z

Over the past three class periods I have heard many presentations about my fellow classmates and their professional development projects. Something that struck me was the amount of coaches and teachers that are in the class, and how the majority of those want to do both. It speaks to the quality of the high school coaches that we have that the students would want to follow in their footsteps and teach/coach high school student-athletes. Most people shadowed someone close to them, someone they were familiar with. This level of familiarity added to the comfort level of everyone, and allowed them to get the full benefit of the experience. I know it helped me a lot to be comfortable with the person that I was shadowing, and I think it allowed both of us to be more candid when having certain discussions.

Overall my takeaway from this experience and from listening to everyone's presentations is that we all want to help people, if not teaching and coaching then in some sort of medical profession. We have all had good experiences and mentors growing up, and now we all gained experience from those people and that will help us become the people that we want to be down the road. We want to give back and help young people by taking our experience and knowledge, and passing it down to the younger generation so they can have the same types of experiences that we all had.

Developing...like a professional

2012-04-25T04:43:16Z

Professional development--and development in general--is a beautiful thing. I've experienced immeasurable personal growth simply through hearing my classmates talk about their experiences.

I appreciated that pretty much everyone found their own niche and corresponding person to follow. Prior to these presentations, I did not know the cost of a customized knee brace, why the Rec Center egg hunt was a struggle, or how much time goes into being a high school teacher-coach.

The other nice thing was getting some more career options. And it's great to know that if I ever want to find out more about a particular job or position, I can just shadow someone. Although I wonder how well that would work if I just emailed a random person...I guess I'll have to find out...next winter...

This project has inspired me to contact the city of Minneapolis so that I may learn what it's like to drive a snowplow! DREAMS REALLY DO COME TRUE!

Professional Development

2012-04-25T04:31:53Z

It is very interesting to hear what future careers students are interested in. There is a surprising amount of students that want to be teachers. It was also surprising to me that I am one of the few people who wants to work on the business side of sports. The most popular occupations seem to be teaching and coaching. For those that want to teach/coach high school, I am curious which one propels the other. Do students choose teaching as their major because ideally they want to coach high school sports? Or do they want to be a high school teacher and look at coaching as a fun job on the side? The careers in the this class differ significantly from many of my other classes. In those classes, almost everyone wants to work in the front office or be a coach of a professional team. Here, the majority of students want to work/coach at a high school level.

I liked hearing all the different career options. I had never thought of Recreation Programming as a career in sport management until a classmate's presentation. It would be a fun career, as it combines sports and event planning. For those students who chose something like physical therapy, the career decision was often a result of a student's injury and their experiences with the treatment that followed.

I think what most students took away from this project was how much they learned about the day-to-day activities of the jobs, especially from a business/administrative side. While there was a varying level of paperwork that came with each job, it was still understood that paperwork is necessary. However, part of the appeal of working in sports is that it is not your typical desk job. In general, people in class all want to have a job that allows for direct interaction with others.

Now Trending

2012-04-25T04:06:40Z

From listening to my classmates present their projects, there are a number of common themes that have been prevalent. Mainly, each classmate has done their respective project with someone familiar to them. Either someone from their past or someone they currently have a relationship with. Many classmates also chose to stick within their specific environment, for example jobs, or sports teams. The next main take-away point is that the majority of classmates have expressed a sense of happiness upon completion of this project. I would assume that because most everyone chose to shadow someone from their prospective field of work that the sense of happiness is a good thing, and it shows that everyone is happy with the choice they have made to pursue a specific career. Lastly another trend that each presentation has shown is personal experience. It seems that each person had had some personal experience that happened in their life that lead them to make a greater connection with their specific job shadow.

Eye Openers

2012-04-25T04:05:51Z

The past few classes of presentations we had have been great. It has been very interesting seeing everyone go through different experiences with the activities they do so consistently and enjoyably. I think that the most important thing in which I have learned from all of the different presentations is the training and full understanding to which it takes to prepare for a job. These professional development projects should help us to understand whether or not we will actually enjoy these activities as an every day job for the rest of our lives. One of the biggest aspects of training that I noticed keeps popping up is the broad base of networking. Today's economy consistently uses the motto "it's not what you know, but who you know." This motto can be argued but I think it has a lot to do with how our society has evolved. Overall despite the learning experiences for homework of the project it was also very enjoyable doing a project that was fun to perform.

So little time, so much to do

2012-04-25T03:54:55Z

First and foremost, I want to point out the obvious. I learned the specific job titles and fields that people are trying to use this class to progress. From personal experience, I can take parts of my job and apply them to aspects we have learned in class; I feel as if everyone else has been able to also apply these same lessons in their time shadowing.

Other than the most obvious, I have learned that there are so many areas that you can take a coaching type class' lessons. Some people might have to go an extra long time in more schooling in order to become their dream job while others have started now while in college. The road is so different for so many people and it is so weird to think of where you are in your journey and what lies ahead of you compared to the rest of the class.
Respecting everyone's dream is important because we are trying to boost these sports world jobs and I guess it starts with a presentation like this one.

The Key to Success

2012-04-25T03:46:47Z

While watching the presentations in class, I have noticed a few common themes. I have learned that in all of the presentations there have been some sort of networking involved as well as job shadowing. No matter which type of job the presentations have been focused on, just as physical therapists, coaches, athletic trainers, or managers of a sports facility, job shadowing has been a huge factor. When you have the opportunity to shadow someone in a field in which you are interested in working on, it opens your eyes up to the future. You are really able to learn and grow from the experience because you are most likely interested in the same career path as the one you are shadowing.

Also, while watching the presentations, I have learned that many jobs require similar skills and duties. Organization is a skill that has been mentioned in many of the presentations. In order to be successful and productive, it is very important that you are organized.

I thought that the Professional Development Project was a lot of fun and I learned a lot both from my experience and from others experience as well.

Coaches, Trainers, and Administrators, Oh My

2012-04-25T03:33:55Z

From watching our class professional development presentations, I have learned a lot more about the students in this class. I was surprised to see the wide variety of careers everyone is pursuing. I assumed a lot of people wanted to be PT's and/or coaches since this is a KIN class, but I was quite wrong. There are so many career goals, from coaches to teachers to sport administrators. It's nice to know that there is a wide variety of jobs available with a Kinesiology or Sport Management or Education major. It makes me not so worried about finding a job in my field in the event I don't get into grad school the first round. It's been enjoyable hearing about all the experiences people had. Everyone seems to have taken something meaningful from it; whether they found their passion or found something they definitely don't want to do. Most of the students did something in the sport world, which doesn't surprise me too much. I think most of the students in this class are or were at some time athletes and will always have a passion for sport and want to work in the sport world in the future.

I sure hope this isn't the last blog!

2012-04-25T01:40:50Z

Coming into this class, I was under the impression that most everyone (with the exception of at least one) was taking it to fulfill a requirement for the coaching minor. What the presentations have taught me, however, is that the interests of our classmates are almost as broad as the topics we covered throughout the semester. What we have learned in class can be applied to a range of careers- from coaches to athletic trainers to neck and back specialists.

One of the most interesting parts of the presentations for me was hearing how different individuals got to the point that they are in their career. I found it interesting to see how some people have been to the "big" leagues in their career, and for whatever reason, are now involved with collegiate sports. Being able to hear these individuals' stories (albeit second-hand) helped to remind me that in the end, success is subjective. Regardless of the career that you are doing or the level you are at, as long as you enjoy what you do and perform it wholeheartedly, you've been successful.

For a different discussion on reaching success, try reading Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell.

Great Opportunities and Networking

2012-04-25T01:01:54Z

Throughout all of these presentations so far, I have really enjoyed them. There are many things that I liked about this project and presentations. First thing I like is that this project has opened our eyes and helped us broaden our horizons in order to reach out and try to pursue the career we are looking at to become. This has helped me open my eyes and see if I really want to pursue the coaching career. Another thing I have realized while watching these presentations is that these job shadows have created many networking opportunities for the future when we graduate and are actually looking for that job. This project has made us comfortable enough for us to be able to call our person we shadowed and maybe receive a job opportunity. Overall I feel that this project has done much more than we actually realize and will benefit all of us in the future.