Thanks to the hard work of Mrs. Minerva Hernandez and Mrs. Terry Perez we have been able to design a program for Learning Tree's four middle schools in the NISD. We have created the Dance Expressions Crew (DEC), a character building program for young men. The DEC program will focus on one character trait per one hour lesson. Character traits to be focused on include: Respect, Trustworthiness, Caring, Responsibility and many more useful social skills.
In addition to character building, participants will be taught breakdancing. Dance moves are broken down to the simplest movements and taught to the students as exercises. During the span of the DEC program students will build muscle memory as well as improve muscle strength, flexibility and cardiovascular health. We are extremely excited and thankful for this opportunity and would like to that everyone that has helped us get this far. Please take a moment to learn more about Learning Tree is the video below.
Effective after-school programs bring a wide range of benefits to youth, families and communities. After-school programs can boost academic performance, reduce risky behaviors, promote physical health, and provide a safe, structured environment for the children of working parents.
Attending after-school programs can improve students’ academic performance. A national evaluation found that over 40 percent of students attending 21st Century Community Learning Center programs improved their reading and math grades, and that those who attended more regularly were more likely to make gains (Naftzger et. al., 2007).
Effective after-school programs can improve classroom behavior (Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, 2010), school attendance, academic aspirations, and can reduce the likelihood that a student will drop out (Huang, Leon, La Torre, Mostafavi, 2008).
Participation in after-school programs has been associated with reduced drug use (Investing in Our Young People, University of Chicago, 2006) and criminal behavior (UCLA National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing, 2007).
After-school programs can play an important role in encouraging physical activity and good dietary habits. Participation in after-school programs has been associated with positive health outcomes, including reduced obesity (Mahoney, J., Lord, H., & Carryl, 2005).
Working families and businesses also derive benefits from after-school programs that ensure that youth have a safe place to go while parents are at work. Parents concerned about their children’s after-school care miss an average of eight days of work per year, and this decreased worker productivity costs businesses up to $300 billion annually (Brandeis University, Community, Families and Work Program, 2004 and Catalyst & Brandeis University, 2006).
A March 2011 study published in the Journal of Physical Activity & Health found that dog owners are more likely to reach their fitness goals than those without canine companions. Researchers at Michigan State University found that dog owners are 34 percent more likely to fit in 150 minutes of walking per week than non-dog owners.
The same study from Michigan State found that owning a pet dog promotes health and fitness even after you take your pup for a stroll, increasing leisure-time physical activity by 69 percent.
A University of Missouri study found that walking with a puppy dog leads to a 28 percent increase in walking speed, compared to a 4 percent increase found with a human walking buddy.
People who walk with dogs are more likely to stick to their fitness plans than those who walk with humans or alone, according to researchers at the University of Missouri.
Your furry friend is there for you in good times and bad. A study from the National Institutes of Health found dog owners had a better one-year survival rate following a heart attack than non-dog owners.
Dog owners who walk their dogs regularly have one-third the risk of diabetes than those who don't own and walk a dog, according to exercise scientist Cindy Lentino.
A study from the University of Virginia found that teens from dog-owning families are more physically active than teens whose families don't own a pet dog, clocking an extra 15 minutes of exercise each week.
Dog owners require 20 percent less medical care than non-dog owners, according to a UCLA study among the elderly.
Researchers at Central Michigan University found that when a dog is present in a collaborative group setting, group members rank their teammates higher in terms of trust, team cohesion, and intimacy.
Scientist from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine found that children from families with a history of allergies are less likely to develop eczema if they grow up with a pet dog starting at birth.
Patients recovering from joint replacement therapy who use animal-assisted therapy need 50 percent less pain medication, according to Loyola University researchers.
It may seem counter intuitive, but being close with your pooch helps develop human relationships. Studies find that owning a dog, and particularly walking your dog, increases social interaction.
Sure, being more active will obviously lead to improved blood pressure, but studies have found that the mere act of petting your puppy will decrease your blood pressure
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Child psychologist Robert Bierer of Albuquerque found that children who had experience caring for a dog had higher levels of empathy and self-esteem than children without pet dogs.
Your pet pup could help your child learn to read. A study from the University of California, Davis found that kids who practise reading to a dog see a 12 percent improvement in reading skills over a 10-week period, compared to no improvement seen by kids who didn't read to a pup.
Have you ever seen a bench or a picnic table around town and just wanted to jump on it? Perhaps your kids suddenly made a sprint and swung around a light pole. Those instincts are perfect for parkour. Kids love to jump around, and parkour teaches them how to do it safely and correctly. Instructors also show each student how to explore and control their potential with a smart, disciplined approach.
Parkour has a unique way of changing people's lives. The goal of parkour (also called l'Art du Deplacement) is to help that change be positive, progressive, lasting, and fun. It is one of the most fluid forms of exercise a person can get.
Parkour combines street-smarts and body-smarts. People who train parkour (a traceur or traceuse) learn to interact with the world around them by creatively jumping, climbing, crawling, and even rolling. It's a physical art form of natural movement that is completely unscripted.
Having a hard time imagining just what parkour is? This video will give you a great sense of it:
Although parkour got its start with a few friends in France, it has developed into its own global movement. You may have seen parkour in movies such as Casino Royale and The Bourne Ultimatum.
While it's sometimes known as an urban "sport", it is not really a sport, nor is it confined to urban environments. Parkour can be as unique as each person engaging with it - using your body's momentum, strength and redistribution of weight to propel you up, over or forward. The method features obstacle-course-like actions that challenge you mentally and physically.
Dance embodies one of our most primal relationships to the universe. It is pre-verbal, beginning before words can be formed. It is innate in children before they possess command over language and is evoked when thoughts or emotions are too powerful for words to contain.
Dance is a powerful ally for developing many of the attributes of a growing child. Dance helps children mature physically, socially, and cognitively. The physical benefits of dance are widely accepted, but the emotional, social and cognitive attributes have only recently begun to be appreciated.
Dance provides young children multiple perspectives. It is “a foundation of experience necessary for the future development of more advanced skills and a way to affirm an inner life and alternate realities” (Stinson, 1990). Through dance, children develop enhanced sensory awareness, cognition, and consciousness. It is this heightened state that creates the magic of movement that is dance.
This past Monday we had the great opportunity to teach breakdancing classes at the Circle of Support Summer Camp in Dallas, TX. Children's Health was given the task to provide health education classes and contacted us to see if we would be open to this opportunity. We jumped at the chance to help create a healthier and happier generation through breakdancing and agreed to volunteer our services.
The drive from San Antonio to Dallas took longer than expected but in the end it was well worth it. As soon as we walked into Joseph J. Rhodes Elementary the students greeted us with questions. "Are you the breakdancing guy? Do we really get to learn how to breakdance?" I knew right then that it was going to be a great day.
Bottom spins bring smiles!
After we set up the classroom, the first group of students began to pour in and it was showtime. We began each class with a brief introduction telling the students who we were and what we do, then we got the kids moving. "If we can listen without music, then we can listen with music," was my way of helping the students understand that our time was limited, but we could make the best of our short time together.
Students learning "kick outs".
Once we showed the kids what was expected of them, they jumped right into the lessons. We started off with spinning down to the floor, then moved on to "kick outs". The students squatted down and leaned back onto one hand, then kicked both legs out to the floor, then brought their legs back quickly to a squat position. This move is essentially a side plank with fast movement added for stylized effect.
Motivated teachers make motivated students.
Depending on each student's skill level, we then taught them progressively harder or easier moves to keep their heart rates and confidence up. The favorite move of the day was the "bottom spin". Students sat on the floor and kicked with their good leg and pushed with their bad hand causing them to spin until smiles grew and laughter was heard around the classroom. It was a fun time had by all. The best part was that the students were exercising and building confidence at the same time. All that was needed was music and open space. No balls, goals, courts or expensive equipment, just space, music and imagination are required. I have first hand experience using breakdancing to stay healthy, gain attention, build self-esteem, and even travel the world. My hope is that I can spark the same interest that was sparked in me in at least one of these students.
We were able to introduce breakdancing as a healthy and active hobby to over 100 students in Dallas, TX in just one day, now that's what we call a successful day. We would like to thank Trustee Nutall of Dallas ISD for organizing the Circle of Support Summer Camp. Also, Karen Kaighan and Sandra Vasquez of Children's Health for giving us this great opportunity.
When I moved Onsite Youth Training (OYT) to San Antonio, Texas I was hoping to find a way to reach more young people that would benefit from our services. We started out in 2014 teaching private lessons and instructing small group classes in Sacramento, California. The students were happy and we were having a positive impact on their lives. Yet I knew that we could do more, the question was how do we reach the students that would benefit from our services the most?
Ms. Morgan teaching her Hip-Hop choreography class at Hutchins Elementary.
The answer to that question was SA Youth. They had the students and the best part was, that if we could find a way to partner with them, the classes would be free to the families. SA Youth has been in business for over 30 years helping San Antonio’s low-income children stay in school and helping young adults who have quit school gain a second chance through high-school credit recovery and workforce training. So I was determined to get my business in business with SA Youth.
The Hip-Hop choreography class at Heritage Elementary with Ms. Amy.
Flash forward to April 11th, 2016 and I was signing a contract with SA Youth to provide 8 school sites with Hip-Hop dance classes twice a week. This now allowed us to reach over 300 students a week! The choice to move OYT to San Antonio was a great one and with the help of SA Youth we will continue to create a healthier and happier generation.
Mr. Chris getting funky with with his Breakdancing class.
