Volunteer Experience: Fergus High School Track Meet

          

          A competitive and enthusiastic high school athlete, myself, I jumped at the opportunity to volunteer at the Fergus High School track meet on May 3, 2014.  I competed at this same track meet many times when I was in high school and always appreciated all the coaches and volunteers working to make things run smoothly.  At the track meet, I was stationed at the discus.  Volunteering at the track meet reminded me why it is important to offer extra-curricular activities, such as track and field, to high school students.  It provides them an outlet to engage in different means of education and gives them responsibility and credibility outside of the classroom.

            At the discus, it was my responsibility to stand in the sector and mark where the different discuses hit the ground.  Ten competitors in a flight throw the discuss in turn, and they each throw the discuss three times, so it was my responsibility to mark their farthest throws.  There were other volunteers and coaches there, too, and we worked as a team to ensure that we were accurate.  In addition to marking the discuses, we also return the thrown discuses to the competitors and measure the farthest throw for each competitor.  After the preliminary throws, there is a finals round which is composed of the top eight throwers from the boys and girls competition.  The process is then repeated.  Overall, the discuss event took a few hours.

            Track meets provide a great opportunity to work with students because they are events where students from many different backgrounds meet.  At Fergus’ track meet, there were students there from Class A schools, such as Lewistown, to Class C Schools, such as Winnett/Grass Range.  Therefore, I was able to work with a diverse group of students from across Eastern and Central Montana.  There were many Native American students at the track meet from Hardin and many Title 1 Schools, such as Winnett and Grass Range.  Knowing Central and Eastern Montana, it is clear that many students come from poor small schools and ranching communities were at the meet.

            During my student teaching, many students have missed school because of extra-curricular activities such as basketball, golf, track, music festival, and DECA.  Listening to teachers, it has become apparent that they begin to resent this throughout the year because it takes so many students out of the classroom, where important lessons are taking place.  As I mentioned, in high school, I missed a lot of school for different extra-curricular activities and I know that, as well as school, it was these extra-curricular activities that helped me figure out what I wanted to do after high school. 

            While I understand that it is frustrating to have students out of class, I still feel that these extra-curricular activities are important to students as well.  Therefore, as a future teacher, I want to be sure that I embrace the notion of students missing school for school sponsored events and work with them to make the lesson as fluid as possible.  I will not be willing to sacrifice the integrity of my lesson just because students will be missing it, but it is important, when planning lessons, to be thinking about how students missing class can make the lesson up.  Working at Fergus High School’s track meet reminded me how important extra-curricular activities are to students and how, as a future teacher, it is my responsibility to encourage participation and accommodate these students in the classroom.