Outward-Bound

At SUNY Cortland all Physical Education majors are required to take an outdoor education class. This class is held at SUNY Cortland's own education center located in the heart of the Adirondacks, Raquette Lake. This facility offers an array of activities that many people have never experienced. These being canoeing, hiking, and mountain climbing to say a few. The main purpose of this class is to teach basic survival/orienteering skills to students, as well enhancing team bonds among learners. Health and Wellness include multiple levels. These are physical, emotional, social, intellectual, environmental, and spiritual. The Outward-bound Processing Model targets all of these areas.
The experience that I had at Raquette lake I feel was one for the better. I found out many characteristic of my own I had not known were there. Also I was able to see people for how they can truly be once the facade of comfort that our modern society brings is taken away. The group I was with was a great group, we had many struggles, more than most due to the situations that were presented to us. We overcame the adversity and were able to bond and flourish. I have a newly reinforced respect for nature now, its power for taking, as well as its power for giving. After I came back from Raquette lake I brought with me a new found strength. I was finally able to get off the medication for my traumatic brain injury and begin to go on the road to recovery. I had changed nothing in my life up until this point except having that one week in nature. This experience did not cure me, but it instilled within me the confidence to try and cure myself.

I feel as though the "project adventure" courses within the schooling curriculum would be quite beneficial to students. This program allows for team bonding, as well as outdoor education. These types of classes can give students the understanding of how to use their community resources in a positive manner. During my 256 teaching observation the high school I was posted at had a program just like the one I am describing. The district had access to a private park with a lake. Here the Physical Education teachers would show the students lifelong activities like canoeing, and orienteering. Many of the students had never gone to this resource before, even though they had spent most of their life within the district. Now though they had the knowledge to go out and perform these activities on their own. This is the main purpose of "New Aged" Physical Education teachers. This is to instill within students the tools they need to be healthy, productive, confident individuals throughout their life. I wish to base much of my teachings off of this philosophy and influence students for the better.