355 Reflections

9/28/11 Class

 (Grades 2-3)

Today was our first day in Truxton I was very excited to see the facility and how the PE class was set up.  When we showed up to the school the first thing that came to mind is that this school is small. The things that ran through my mind were that the PE program might be effected financially. As we walked into the school we were greeted nicely by the secretary, she then preceded to tell us what we had to do to sign in and out. The first class that we observed was a mixed class of 2^nd and 3^rd. One thing that I noticed is that the students came in and had set places to be sitting in groups and came in quietly. This made it a lot easier for Mr. Totman to explain the stations that they would be having and also an easy way to take attendance.

(Grade K)

In the second class that we had was the kindergarten class. The kindergarteners would have the same stations as the 2^nd and 3^rd graders but the tasks would be easier. In this class there was a student that acted out and was sat down for that station. The stations were 5 minutes and after the station the student was called over and asked what he did wrong. He was also asked why it was wrong and allowed to go back to his group.

10/5/11 Class

(Grades 2-3)

In this lesson it shows the locomotor non-locomotor and the manipulative skills of the students. For the locomotor skills the buddy walkers work on walking with a buddy and the non-locomotor skills because they need to be able to have rhythm to move efficiently with their partner. The manipulation part of the lesson is having the student using cutouts of animals with string on the object and sewing the outside edge a specific way.

(Grade K)

In this class it seems that the buddy walkers are really hard for the students because they are so much bigger than the students using them. In order for the students to use them they have to hold halfway down the string about half way.

10/12/11 Class

(Grade 2-3)

Today the students were allowed to use the large 6 person buddy walker. This is the first time that I have seen this equipment. I have seen the two person buddy walkers but not a larger one. This is a very nice thing for helping with communication and team work. Another piece of equipment that was very interesting was the bike walkers which are like skates but you have to pedal them like a bike to make them move. After seeing these different pieces of equipment Mr.Totman showed us some more of his equipment that he has just gotten because he has wrote grants which he told us we would try to get as many as possible when teaching.

(Grade K)

In the kindergarten class there is one student who has a learning disability and that student has a individual that is always with her. The aid is there for her if she needs help with a task in the classroom or bathroom. For success in PE she also has extra time in PE every week when Mr.Totman has one of his off periods.

10/19/11 Class

(Grade 2-3)

Today because it was so nice outside Mr. Totman allowed the students to go outside and play kickball. He also told us that this is a good lesson for us to watch because it shows us how this is a poor game to play. The reasons why is that with the amount of students in the class they all got to kick once by the end of class. There are no multiple repetitions for practice and the only students that really get anything out of the class are the more skilled students.

(Grade K)

In the kindergarten class Mr. Totman showed us a different way that we could play a kickball type game. You split the class into four groups and have three out in the field and one up to kick. Each person on the team will get a ball and be able to kick at least four times or more depending on how many students per team. While the students have to get the ball to a basket while one person on the kicking team runs around getting points for however many bases they touch.

11/2/11 Class

(Grade 2-3)

Today, we got the opportunity to have one of the stations for us to teach. We decided to try one of the scooter lessons that we did in a 355 lab. After explaining the station and having the first group go we had to make a lot of changes. The first change that we had to do is to make the students safer because we had a few students being run flung into the walls. One of our major changes was the emphasis on safety with the partner on the scooter and the other students in the gym.  One thing that learned from that experience was that if you don’t not really emphasize on something the students could get hurt and that is not good at all.

(Grade K)

 In the kindergarten class something that I noticed was a big deal is who get to go first and who they work with. With the size difference it is harder for some students to be able to push other s on the scooters. Some other differences is in the cognitive and affective areas are shown in this class. In the cognitive area some students understood how to maneuver the students on the scooters better than other and some just didn’t get if you pushed lower than you had more control. With the affective part some students just know how to share better than other students and give their partner a chance at being pushed on the scooter.

11/9/11 Class

Today we went to the class room of our 2^nd grade class to see how the students are in that class. In this classroom it is very organized and has many reminders around all of the walls. It has the breakdown of math problems on the walls, to maps and globes on the others. This is similar to what PE teachers do to remind students of cues that they want them to remember. The classroom also feels very comfortable and not like a actual classroom. The classrooms atmosphere felt very positive starting with the teacher. She has enthusiasm for teaching her students and she has a very active class. She made the class more of a discussion than just sitting at the front of the class talking to her students. The topic that we got to sit in on was a spelling lesson for the students. The teacher got the students into the lesson by allowing the students to selected words from their previous spelling lists in the way of a cooperative teaching style. The teacher had a final say on the words but allowed them to pick. The students seemed to really enjoy this because it gave them a sense of ownership on that spelling list. Based on the words from the previous spelling lists and the one that they are creating it seems that the teacher is really trying to broaden their vocabulary. There are some words that are still easy for them but there are also the difficult words so that the better spellers can also be challenged. As the list was being made you can see the student’s reactions or even comments on how easy or hard a word is compared to another student’s reaction. One thing that really got me in this class was that the teacher actually got the students up and had them do a little dance before starting story time. They do this every time before the students move to the reading area. The main thing that I noticed in this class that I will use to teach this grade is to give them the option to make a activity theirs with a little guidance, because it seems to keep them on task and enjoy the lesson more. Also I took away that giving a nice feeling to the room and also enthusiasm about the subject portrays to the students that it is important.

11/16/11 Class

(Grades 2-3)

During today’s class we had complete control of the class. We figured to keep the same frame work with having the stations an ending game. The theme of the lesson was thanksgiving because that was the holiday that was coming up. With the stations of hot potato and turkey hunt they were just simply a tossing exercise and a throwing at a target exercise. With the names and the props for the games the student didn’t even realize that they were practicing the skills we wanted them to. We also had them practicing balance and ball control in the other two stations.  

 (Grade K)

When the kindergarten came in we had a few changes that we were going to have to make to the games. We had to change the distances of the balls being thrown and also how far the partners were away from each other.  This was a big thing that we learned was that students will have different abilities so that is why we made these changes for the class. We kept track of each student as they were throwing to make sure that they were using the cues that we had given them. We would put a check mark next to their name on the assessment if they met the requirement or didn’t. 

(Grades 1-2)

 In this class the one thing that really stands out to me was how the students reacted to the end game that we had. With having the students act as turkeys and making sounds they loved it. It still gets me how the students react to little things like sounds, pictures and other themes.
 

11/30/11 Class

(Grades 2-3)

In this class the students were very hyper. There was many times where we would see many students on the ground while doing the activity. The only thing that Mr.Totman had to do was to walk around more and the students just seeing him next to them would get onto task.

 (Grade K)

In our last day at the school with the kindergarten there was a situation with a student which had to do with cleanliness. Mr. Totman and the teacher stepped outside to handle it very well so the student didn’t feel awkward. Mr. Totman is always making sure to talk and communicate with the teachers before and after class to either get information on how the students are acting that day so he can get a feel for the class.  This class is the one that we used for our post assessment of throwing. Mr. Totman had a station which had the students throwing towards foods that they had at Thanksgiving.  This is the day where we would assess the students on the affective and cognitive parts of the throwing lesson that was continued  on this day.

(Grades 1-2)

This Day we decided to stay for the last class of the day again and the students were very excited to see us. I think they thought that we were going to be teaching them some more fun games like our last lesson. At the end of class Mr.Totman had us be the taggers instead of having students. With having use as the taggers it seemed that the students were running more than they usually would instead of thinking of strategy of staying in a corner.

Throughout this entire time that I was there I did not see a lesson plan that would hit on the 3^rd NYS standard. The 1^st and 2^nd standard are easy to hit with every lesson because Mr.Totman always has many different activities and challenges during each station.

356 Reflections

9/19/11

            Today was the first day where we got to meet our students for the first time. The two students I have are Adrianna and Matt they are both 8 years old. Both of them look to be very fit and somewhat capable to do many different things. Today was a day where we got to learn about what they like to do and what they like. Adrianna has both her sister and brother in the program as well. Matt is a only child and loves the smurfs and can talk for hours about them. 

9/26/11

Today I administered the TGMD-2 locomotor part to both Adrianna and Matt. Adrianna scored very well on every part of the TGMD-2. She is a very skilled student. Matt did alright on his skills the ones that will need improving will be his gallop, hop, and slide. During this lesson I noticed that the tasks seemed easy for Adrianna to the point where she was bored. Next time I think instead of just having them perform the task I will try and incorporate them in to a game but still have the TGMD-2 standard distances.

10/3/11

            Today I administered the Object control part of the TGMD-2 to both Adrianna and Matt. Adrianna once again scored very high on this part of the test. The only little thing that she could work on would be her follow through on her overhand throw. Matt did a lot better on this part of the test, but one of his really weak points is his ability to catch an object. So for the future lessons I will try and improve his skills in throwing and also challenge Adrianna to help her improve.

10/10/11

            Today I tried to incorporate the wheel chairs into the lesson of dribbling a basket ball because I wanted to test to see how they reacted to being able to use the wheel chairs. But with this lesson it just became me trying to get them to do the activity instead of just wheeling around. I think that with this lesson it shows me that the wheel chairs could be use more as a reward for doing the activities in the lesson.

10/17/11

            So today I incorporated the game Socci into my lesson of throwing and catching. Both of the students really liked the new game that I showed them. I also like it because they got to get multiple reps of throwing the balls over hand to the Socci goals. I then made it so that they had to move farther away to increase their arm strength. The next game that I had for them was clean up your back yard which has them just once again getting multiple reps of throwing but with Matt I had him try to catch the balls that I was throwing onto his side. When I threw balls towards him he would turn away from them with a small fear of them hitting him.

10/24/11

            Today was a Halloween theme so I brought into class a cut out skull and pumpkin for the activities that I had planned. During this lab I also brought in stickers for them when they completed a task correctly and with great effort. While we were doing our warm up of task cards it was hard because Matt was more worried about what was on the boards. So what I did was told him that if we could finish our warm up we could get to the games that had the boards in them. During this lesson I really focus on Matt’s stepping in opposition with his throwing. With Adrianna I made her task to aim for just the left eye then switch it to the right but she had to make 5 in first before going to the right eye. With the putting the thing I really focused on was making sure that they were keeping their eye on the ball and making contact. Once they both go that down I gave them the task of making 6 as partners. In this lesson they also really like the ghosts that were a tennis ball being held in a plastic bag by a rubber band. This helped Matt a lot because it gave him more to grab on to and make the catch easier.

10/31/11

            I continued the Halloween theme into this lesson so that I could work on bowling and also bring back the catching of the ghost because it really helped Matt with catching. The ghosts became more of reward with Adrianna and Matt than an activity. But with the bowling I had to really break down the skills for both of them so that they could get the proper form to use while bowling. I used poly spots for the foot placement and also used pictures of ghosts on the pins so that they had to throw hard enough to make the ghosts disappear.

11/7/11

            After seeing a bunch of other teachers using the scavenger hunt as an activity I thought of a different spin I could put on it for my students. So what I did to go along with the safari theme I put a bunch of animals as the things we had to find. With the clues I had Adrianna and Matt alternate reading the clues and answering them. In between the different animals I had them skipping, jumping, hoping, or doing bear walks crab walks or a fitness activity once we found the animals. This also gave them information on the animals from the clues and also gave them a chance to work on a few different exercises. 

11/14/11

            Today I only had Adrianna so I changed my plan a lot so that I could use some of the games for the next lab. In this lab she really liked that we were doing a game where she had to learn special awareness by finding the parts of a turkey under cones. She was doing this while being blind folded. The next activity was to work on improving her locomotor skills but if she normally led with her right foot she had to use her left. This also had a fitness component to it when she didn’t find the right letter or the cone was empty she had to do an exercise of her choice.

11/21/11

            Today was a continuation of the Thanksgiving lesson. Matt missed the last class and I really wanted to see how well he could do with the spelling games that I had. I made the game a little easier by having them just find the letters in the correct order as they hung up on the wall. But they had to gallop hop skip and or jump to the turkey. This was a very good activity I think because it shows me more than just their physical but their cognitive of a different class and that being English.

11/28/11

            Today my focus was the volleying of a ball. So I started off with a game to see how many times they can hit a ball in a row without it touching the ground with a racket. With this it was hard to keep Adrianna focused because she wasn’t feeling good. She had been sick and had a head ache all day at school. When we switched over to the beach ball to practice volleying that seemed to help keep Adrianna’s attention more.

12/5/11

            In this lesson I really based it on the winter season with making snowmen after doing the locomotor skills to find the parts under cones. If they didn’t find a part they had to do five jumping jacks. They really liked this because they got to make something out of the game it just wasn’t practicing a skill. I also brought back the wheel chairs as a reward but I also made it so that they had to make a lap around the building in less than 3 minutes. Also in this lab I did a bobsled race which gave them the opportunity to go the fastest way they thought possible on the scooters around the course I had set up.

NYS AHPERD Conference

74th Annual NYS AHPERD Conference there were many insightful sessions to go to. The most insightful ones for myself were the Social/Psychology Of Teaching and Coaching, and Risk Management &Safety In Physical Education both presented by Rod Mergardt. The first session talked about how a sports team cannot be successful until there is a foundation of friendship, loyalty, cooperation, enthusiasm, and industriousness. Only until that foundation is build can the team start working well together and succeeding in the season. This thing that sticks out most from this session was his pyramid of people. The pyramid is broken down into 27% of people in your life are at the bottom of the pyramid, then 60%, then 10% and the last part of the pyramid was 3%. Rod Mergardt said that the 27% of the people in your life are a pain and you should cut out the people that only come and take things and never give anything to you or drag you down. This can correlate to the sporting team where they are the athletes that do not want to work hard and cause problems with other team members. The next 60% are the hard working people that need parameters and need to be told what to do consistently. These would be the athletes that are not your star players but are hard working for a short period of time and will give it all they have but will need to be taken out so a mistake is not made. The next 10% are people that are ones when a mistake is made don’t know how to handle it that they continue to make mistakes until they figure out what is wrong. These would be your athletes that have great talent but continue to think about a mistake and then their whole game is affected by it until you take a time out and help them with that problem and get them to shake off the problem. The last 3% are the people that everyone likes to be around. They always have a positive attitude and are willing to help out even if they don’t receive anything in return. These types of people would be your leader of your team. They are hard working, always asking questions on how they can improve their game. If a mistake is made they take that as a challenge to do better on the next thing they have to do. For example if they miss a open shot in a basketball game they then go on defense and make a great play. You can also challenge these athletes to show them they can still improve. At the end I was chosen to show how this works. Rod Mergardt asked me to jump as high as I can and make a mark and did this 3 times with 3 different types of encouragements. First encouragement was the other people in the room(the team) and the last was a reward.  

Mini Confrence

Exergame At the Mini Conference

At the Exergame booth you get a chance to use some of the technology that is being incorporated into some PE classes. One of the technologies at that the booth was an exercise bike that was hooked up to a Playstation 2. The game that was being played in the system was Cars, and the speed and direction of the car was controlled by the speed of your pedaling and the direction of the handle bars. With this exercise bike the students don’t have to play the game cars. They could be playing their favorite sports game and make rules to what they have to do when something happens in the game. For example when the student has a penalty in hockey during the man down time period the student has to be using only one foot to pedal or they can double the resistance on the bike. The next game that was at the booth was a modified Dance Dance Revolution that had the person punching and kicking a punching bag with the DDR Pad on it. The last equipment there incorporates the DDR pads on the ground and the DDR pad in the punching bag. The game that is being used is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The DDR pads on the grounds move the characters on the screen and combining those moves with punching or kicking the bag makes the characters do moves  to defeat the bad guys in the game.

Philosophys

Education

Education is a major part of every child’s life. I feel that it is a way to help them grow and to expand their minds to the vast array of information for them to take learn. As an educator it is ones duty to give all of the tools that the child needs to succeed in their life. It is also our duty to continue to learn more, so that we can keep giving to our future students. Educators should also be able to have major impact the student’s life and be there for the students. The last big part of education is that if it is made interesting and the teacher knows, loves what they are teaching the students will learn a lot more.

As an educator I will be able to touch and mold the minds of many students. I feel like this is a great opportunity to give them what they want to learn, and also what they should learn. Students should be learning Math, English, Science, History, while also learning how to interact, communicate, and other basic life skills to help them in all aspects of life.

In order for educators to help mold our future students we need to stay current with everything that is going on in the world. We need to be up to date with everything that the students are doing and getting into inside and outside of school. If we just think that once we are done with learning after graduation, then we are not doing our jobs. This is not good for multiple reasons it puts both the teacher and the learners at risk of either termination or injury.

Educators should also be able to not just teach the students but be able to help the student’s in any way that they need. The educator should be able to just make the students feel comfortable coming to the educator with problems with homework, school, home, or just life problems. If it is a friend when they are in need, a resource to help with a problem anything they should be there for the student.

With learning about the new technologies, equipment, content and games we can also show our students that we know what we are teaching them. This will make the lesson more interesting to them causing them to being willing to pay more attention and retain more information. With showing your enthusiasm in whatever the educator is teaching the students will feed off of it and enjoy that lesson more.

Physical Education

            Physical Education is just more than the core sports that are linked to physical education. It is a place where students can learn to improve their overall physical being and use the skills to continue to an active and healthy lifestyle. I feel that the major parts of physical education are to give the information needed for basic movement skills and life time activities. Physical education is also to give the students the information on nutrition and lifetime physical fitness and why it is needed.  Physical education will also show the students the different ways that they can continue lifetime physical fitness outside of the physical education in school.

            The basic movement skills are the foundations for anything that the students will learn. If they do not understand or cannot perform the basic moves they cannot use them to be active. So once the basic movements are learned the students then should be taught as many lifetime activities as they can in their physical education classes throughout their entire time in school.

            The students then should be able to understand why these lifetime activities and fitness is vital to having a long and healthy life. They should also be able to not only have the information for the physical activities but also the nutrition aspect of a healthy life style. If they have the different resources for nutrition and physical fitness they can continue to do this throughout their lives, and transfer it on to their children.

            With the information that is given in the physical education setting about the activities it is useless unless the students can do those activities outside of school. So giving the information to the students about facilities, opportunities, and where to get equipment gives them a better chance at having that physically active lifestyle.

Coaching

            Athletics is a place for students to increase their skills to a proficient level and use them in contests. It also allows for students to build upon their character from the experiences that they go through with their team. Coaching allows student athletes to learn more than just more specific skills but allows them to build leadership skills, learn about teamwork, and the value of hard work. The biggest part I feel is hard work no matter the size or capability of that athlete. With hard work it will always pay off in the end.

            Before the leader can emerge out of your team there has to be trust, friendship, cooperation, perseverance, and enthusiasm within the team. Once all of these are achieved then the players will start to have teamwork. This will create bonds between your players that will not only be on the playing field but off as well. The athletes will also learn to interact with different types of people and succeed with them. It will teach the athletes how to work together to complete a goal that is mutual between all of them. These can be transferred into situations later on in their lives like a workplace, family, or their group of friends.

            Athletics will also help the players build leadership skills by giving all of the athletes the chance to step up when they are needed and take control of a situation. It doesn’t have to be the most talented it could be that one that always motivates the team when they are down. It can be the one that helps the team calm down when getting frustrated. As you see these players you can help mold them into better people and players of the game.

            The next part is the biggest and most important part of coaching which is hard work. Hard work can show the players that anything can be achieved not only just on the playing field but off it as well. The harder that they work on their studies they can use those studies to get better at strategies or skills in their sport. With a situation where the player is not strong if the hard work is put in those skills can be increased. If it is that you are too small for something they can put the hard work in to use the size to their advantage.

XBOX KINECT for PE...isn't that a video game?

With Zumba growing fast as one of the top workouts it is now just not a class that you have to leave your house for. You can now get a game that is both on the PS3 Move and the Xbox Kinect. With this there is no stopping to learn any new steps your just go in and start. So this is a great way to get the kids moving. Also the kids will enjoy this I feel because they won’t be worried about others watching them dance because the other kids will be watching the screen trying to follow the dance moves. Also with this students will want to lead their classmates to get a chance at actually playing the Xbox Kinect. I also feel like with this type of learning the students would be willing to also do this during a study hall or even have it going on before the first bell rings for classes. This will be geared more towards the kinesthetic learners that are more of the hands on learners. They will really like this because they are just doing the activity. The other type of students that will do well in this kind of teaching would be the visual learners. They will be able to see the moves that they will be performing so they can get them down easier. The dances are in sequences so the students will see the pattern over and over to learn the dance.  

Here is a link for more information on Zumba and how it was made

http://www.zumba.com/about/