For Second Straight Year, Russian Educators Swap Ideas at Hendrick Hudson

Last year, Bradley Fredman’s visit from a Russian delegation of educators was thrown together in a whirlwind — the Hendrick Hudson physical education teacher found himself on a Zoom call, which turned into a visit from the delegation just days later.

This time, Fredman and his team were prepared, in place and ready to greet a team of four Russian teachers and instructors visiting the tri-state area to swap best practices for teaching adaptive sports.

“This was a golden opportunity to collaborate,” said Fredman, a teacher and tennis coach who is an advocate of adaptive sports. “We were able to talk about how to build community with people from across the globe.”

On Tuesday, Nov. 19, approximately 40 peer leaders and tennis players from Hendrick Hudson High School, along with students from the school’s SAILOR program, gathered in the Dome with the Russian delegation. They showed the Russian instructors how they play adaptive tennis along with other activities, including an ice-breaker game where questions are written on a beach ball that is then passed among students standing in a circle. The person holding the ball answers the questions, including, “What’s your favorite color?” and “What’s your favorite candy?”

The Russian instructors also led the students in a game for the visually-impaired, which featured a soccer ball with a bell inside of it. The students and teachers wore blindfolds or covered their eyes and had to use the sound of the bell to anticipate the ball.

There were universal smiles and laughs shared among those who participated, as well as questions and comments relayed through an interpreter.

The Russian group was brought to the United States through a non-profit organization A.S.E. Global Bridges, which uses the common bonds of arts, sports, and education to promote an impactful dialogue between people in the U.S. and other countries. This year’s four participants, which included a wheelchair-bound champion swimmer and an adaptive ski instructor, spent just nine days in this country, but visited schools in Brooklyn, Connecticut, Long Island and Westchester.

During their whirlwind visit, the group also attended a Knicks game, were guests at a flag football event at MetLife Stadium, toured the Metropolitan Museum of Art and experienced the Viscardi Center, an expansive community center on Long Island that provides programs and services for children, adults and veterans with disabilities.

On Tuesday afternoon — after they enjoyed local pizza from Avellino’s — the Russian instructors were given a tour of the school and its athletic facilities by two SAILOR students, Diego and Alex. Following their participation in the aforementioned activities in the Dome, the visitors were led by Fredman and several students to the Orchestra room. They observed Orchestra Director Lauren Morabito’s Unified Sound class, in which students help guide their special needs classmates while playing string instruments. Morabito and the students then combined to perform a song for the visitors.

Fredman said he planned on incorporating what he, other teachers and students in attendance learned into future units. He led his classes in a unit last school year on Goalball, a game for the visually-impaired that had been demonstrated during last year’s visit to Hendrick Hudson.

Said Fredman: “These types of experiences are invigorating.”