"When participating in a team, children get to know other children with some of the same interests and some with interests that are very different. Interacting with the other children will improve social skills because the children are practicing mutual respect and cooperation (Nair, 2015). Joining a team can give children a sense of belonging and it gives them the opportunity to make new friends, who can even become one of their very good friends in the long run (“10 psychological and social benefits of sport for kids”, 2015). This can give children another social life outside of school, especially if they don’t enjoy their social life at school, because of bullying, or any other reason. Their team can be support system for them if they don’t have one in their everyday lives. For example, my cheerleading squad is like a big family and we always know that we are there for each other, so if we are dealing with problems, we know we can seek for one another and have that support that we need and are, maybe, lacking. "
Connection: Within my capstone, my partners and I tried to incorporate the students' social life along with school because we didn't know how many opportunities they had to talk to someone about their everyday lives. We gave them 10 minutes at the beginning of every practice to tell us how their weekends were and what they were planning on doing, or how school is going. We all shared in a big circle and it felt like we were connected on some level. After they started getting comfortable, they started opening more about personal things, and that's what we wanted. They looked to us for advice, whether it be with school or personal things, and for one girl, I felt like I was her support system because she came to me the most. All of the students that joined our pep squad were different and unique in their own way. They had outgoing personalities, but everyone got along with each other. Friendships were built between some people that were in the same grade, but never knew each other, and that amazed me. Everyone got along and were friends by the end of this experience and we became kind of like a big happy family, where everyone felt included and supported!