Day 6

On my 6th day at Atria I started the day with the usual that I do every Tuesday by first teaching a fitness class. The outlook looked bad mainly because only 1 person showed up but me and the staff members are trying to work together to get more people to go. The only person that showed up was Katherine. Katherine's determination and hard work always impresses me. We exercised our legs, arms, and fingers. We did finger exercises to loosen our fingers and we did arm and leg exercises to build strength and to regulate blood flow in these areas. After the class we walked Katherine, she did amazing like always. But, I met her son in law and he seemed very nice. And before I left I got to meet one of the residents that I will soon be walking Velma. One of her legs is 1 inch taller than the other and she was waiting for her special shoes. Now that they came in she wants to start walking. What I learned about today is that determination will help somebody try to get what they want to achieve.

Total time logged in for this session: 2 Hours
Total Time Logged: 2 hours

Day 5

On my 5th day at the Atria Retirement home I started to walk with a few residents that I haven't really walked with yet. The first person I walked was Marianna. She got sick for a few months and hasn't walked for really long. But, when I walked her I thought she did a fantastic job. Although we had to take a few brakes while we were walking I think she made huge progress just going on her first walk since her sickness. The next resident I walked was Millie. She actually doesn't really have much trouble walking but really has trouble walking without people watching her mainly because ever since her last accident she recovered physically but not mentally. She showed me a great example of mental progress. This is because this was our first time walking her and she seem trust us a lot already. We walked inside the building around 2 times. As we were walking Katherine saw us and seemed to want to walk because of how Millie was doing. And Millie was very encouraging when it came to walking because they both shared the same goal; they wanted to go home. After we walked Millie we walked Katherine. Katherine was so determined to start walking that she walked although lunch has already started. In today's experience was that in order to get back where you want to be you have to get there by becoming physically and mentally better.

Total time logged in for this session: 2 Hours
Total Time Logged: 2 Hours

Day 4

On my fourth day at the Atria I started the day with a 30 minute exercise class. We did a few warmup by doing a few exercises to get ready for the real workout. The main workout was shadow boxing. Although a few residents have more trouble than others I am still amazed and proud of how hard they work and determined they are to do condition. They were really humorous with the whole session like cracking jokes about "if they were going to box each other" or " if I was going to box somebody." An example of what we were doing was throwing a 1 2 punch for a minute which consisted of a jab and a cross. What I loved about the whole thing about it was they just had fun with it. After the exercise class I went to go walk Katherine. She again did an amazing job. But, what really made me proud of her was that she walked without her painkiller and that she worked out in the morning went to our exercise class and still let us walk her. She definitely is one of the most determined residents. After I walked Katherine I went to go see if any of the other residents wanted to walk but failed mainly because they were soon going to serve dinner. So I talked to all of them to make sure we scheduled an appointment for next week. And it seems like we will definitely have more walkers with us. What I definitely did learn about this week was that developing a relationship and trust with people who are determined to get back on the right track is best for both parties and as you get to know these people you find more information about them like their background, story, and how amazing they are as a person.

Time logged in for this session: 2 hours
Total Time Logged: 2 Hours

Day 3

On my third day at the Atria Retirement home was mainly composed of walking the residents and helping them gain their strength but without the help of Kelly or Adalina. When I first got there the first resident I went to go visit was Katherine. As I was walking Katherine I definitely see improvement mainly because her speed of walking doubled. And she made a goal for herself to walk a certain distance which was farther than before. After I walked with Katherine I went to go visit Jean. I felt so thankful that Jean waited for us just to walk with her. We walked outside of the Atria Retirement Center, she really loves the fresh air and the beautiful weather. We walked all the way to the patio where we went to go sit down to relax and take in the good weather. Me and Jean had a good talk. We talked about how the retirement home is, about her life, whats currently going on with my life and my future plans, etc. As we finished I went to bring her to her room because dinner was soon to be served. To finish off the day I went to go check on other residents to see few more residents and had a few talks to get them ready for our exercise class on Tuesday.

Time logged in for this session: 1 hour and 30 minutes
Total Time Logged: 1 hour and 30 minutes

Day 2

It was my second day at the Atria retirement home and I thought it was going to be hectic mainly because i had to learn how to teach a class and learn excerises they will be comfortable with. To start off with I went into the activity room which i was suppose to learn aboout how the excerises because i will soon take the lead of the class and teach them. So in the beggining I am mainly learning from them. The class only had 1 person in it which was weird because Kelly told me that the class usually has 5-8 people. And as the excerises session finished I went to go visit few of the residents and see if they wanted to do any walking. Out of all the residents only Katherine was the available person to be walked. Most of the residents either already went for a walk or just felt lazy. Kelly told me that they were feeling lazy mainly because they all had sundae which got a pretty good laught out of me. But i am really impressed with Katherine on how determined she is to get her walking better. She usually needs a painkiller before she walks which also takes about 30 minutes to kick in but once she took the painkiller she agreed to start walking with me. I felt so happy and thankful that she would take the pain just to walk with me. After she reached the specific walking distance she was trying to get I felt so inspired and proud. After I walked Katherine I learned about the rules of signing in the center and getting a walkie talkie so everybody can communicate. As I waited for my Kelly I went to go communicate with some of the residents. My goal next time is better develop and strengthen the relationship between me and the residents.

Time logged for this session: 2 Hours
Total Time Logged: 2 Hours

Day 1

On my first day at the Atria Retirement home i had a nervous scared feeling of the people i would meet. This woman named Kelly introduced us to the physical therapist of the home which was Adelina. They both took me to meet one of their lovely residents Katherine. The main goal they wanted me to achieve was to learn how to get the residents out of their wheelchair and onto their walker properly and what to do when they are walking. The first thing I learned was to lock the wheelchair. Second was to communicate and try to help them get on the walker by supporting them and giving them instructions to make the task easy as possible. Third is to watch them go for distance they could try to achieve and help them achieve this goal by supporting them with constant talk of motivation and support. And last is to get them back into their wheelchair safely by locking the wheelchair and supporting them. After we helped Katherine I went to get meet a few residents like Bob, Marianna, Millie, Jean, and Velma. A thing noticed from all these residents is that they are all determined. Determined to get their strength and to be able to do things they could do back then. At the end of the day I felt welcomed and good about what I did mainly because my expectations which was they would not like me was totally wrong. They are all very nice welcoming people. My next task is to try to learn on how to lead a workout class for the residents.

Time logged for this session: 2 Hours
Total time logged: 2 Hours