The other day I attended the portfolio showcase, which helped a lot more then I thought it would have. We're told to make these portfolios, but being a transfer students I never knew what was expected. Going to this showcase, showed me the best of the best when it came to portfolios.
Ben was the only one who had an online portfolio. This was cool because it's different, and with it being almost 2012 technology is where it's at! I also looked at some others which included Gia, Lauren and Allison's.
While all of them were good, I was fascinated by how much info was in Lauren. It seemed like she had everything from anything she's ever done from her artifacts to the marathons she's been apart of, and the list going on and on.
Going to this showcase gave me a lot of great ideas on what to add to mine, and hopefully one day. My portfolio will be in the showcase!
The best and worst moment of my sports career. The biggest moment in my life was full of excitement, but what happens next... Click here to find out!!!
This was the last time at St. Mary's this semester, and as excited as I am for the semester to be over. It's sad that I won't be going back there. I've learned so much from the students at St. Mary's that I don't even know where to begin! I'm glad I spent my last day with the Pre-k students. They are by far my favorite group to work with. They are so excited to just play and learn, it's unreal!
At the beginning of the semester I was unsure of what to expect, but as the weeks went on I became more and more comfortable with the students, as well as knowing the possible outcomes that would occur from my games or actions.
This week was so much fun, who would've thought that we'd be playing outside in December! I think this is a great way to get the Pre-k involved and active! Going out on the playground is great because they're in their element. They are in control over it, and the Teacher Candidates are the ones who were adapting. At one point, the students dragged me inside of the slide playground. I have no idea why I was getting dragged there but they loved every second of it, even if I couldn't get out!
Because we spent so much time outside, we didn't really have time for a craft, so we made the game and craft relate with each other. In order to decorate there Christmas tree ornament, they needed to play the game. After every game they completed they got another sticker to add to there tree. Although we thought this was a great idea, only some students wanted to play the games to get the stickers. Others just wanted to decorate the ornament. I stayed on the bleachers helping the students with there crafts. They were all so excited to color and add stickers to there trees. They get excited about the simplest things, and that's what is so awesome about all of them.
Although I'll miss going to St. Mary's, I'm excited to move onto more classes that will help me become a better Physical Educator!
When I found out that I was assigned the Ice Rink, I became really nervous because I haven't been on the Ice in a long time. Although I had taken ice skating lessons when I was younger, I was afraid that I had lost all my skills that I had once learned. I knew instantly that if I needed to teach on the ice that I had to start practicing on the ice, to become better. If it's one thing I've learned this semester is that practicing not only the skill that you're teaching but practicing teaching, and practice saying what you plan on saying. This is so important in the teaching world because you need to be able to know the skill like the back of your hand in order to be able to critique your students in the skill and to give them congruent and specific feedback throughout your time with them. I had been on the ice now for a few days, and although some of my skills from years ago came back. I still had no idea what I should teach for my final lesson. In this final lesson, we all had to tie in a health topic that Prof. Yang had decided for us. I was thrown Tobacco.
After thinking awhile, I had finally decided on teaching Broom ball because we could be on the ice rink without using ice skates. I now needed to some how add tobacco and technology into my lesson. After battling many techniques I decided to make posters of healthy lungs and lungs after using tobacco. These posters would now become targets in my lesson. Now that I was confident with relating tobacco into my lesson I had to figure out a way to add technology. I couldn't use video games like the wii or xbox 360 connect, so I became lost for a bit, while my mind wondered. I became excited about the idea of using the technology we've used semester. We're suppose to post almost everything we've come in contact with this semester on our blogs. So why not make a homework assignment to join a blog about Broom ball that I would create, and answer a few questions on it. So my plan was to after class, send an email to every student and give them access to post on this blog.
When trying to figure out what I had done well in this lesson, I came to the conclusion that I had pretty good visuals, along with keeping my voice clear and understandable. One of the main things I've been trying to focus on with each lab, is to become better at my keeping my voice loud and to keep good control over the class. I also believe I gave good positive congruent feedback, although the video didn't show it I made sure I did this. I tried to give as much feedback to as many people as I could, but it was hard because the ice was such a big area and it was hard to move around.
Sometimes its hard to watch your lessons, because you know you did things wrong and watching you do them and not being able to change them is something that is really hard for me. I became really flustered in the beginning, forgetting what I had wanted to say about class rules and etiquette. Although I had practiced this lesson multiple times in front of people I froze. Part of me believes that my head wasn't there that day. This particular day was pretty rough, and I had been in a bad mood pretty much all day. We are all human and we will all have bad days, but as teachers when we have a bad day here or there, we need to not show it like I did. By the end of lesson, I had become less grumpy it was clear, but I need to learn to put whatever happens before I walk into those gym doors out of my head so it doesn't affect the students, like it affected my lesson. I believe this was the biggest thing I learned from in lab d.
We're all learning, and adapting to new things in new environments and our goal is to become the best physical educators as possible and I believe that this lesson more then any of the others helped me the most. I needed to experience forgetting what I had planned, and learn how to put things out of my mind along with learning to adapt to the changes that I will be faced with on a daily basis in the future.
This semester has truly been awesome in giving me experience towards my goal of becoming a physical educator. I can't even begin to explain the things I've learned these past few months. Comparing my first video from the first day of EDU 255 to my most recent, I believe not only have I grown as a person but also as a teacher candidate. I can't wait to learn and experience more in my years to come!!
This week at St. Mary's was crazy! All of the students were so rambunctious today! My group was in control of the kindergarten and first graders, which is the group that is getting judged by all of the class. I was excited to go today because it was the last group to teach.
It started off kind of shaky, when Matt presented his game. More then half of the students didn't want to play for one reason or another, which put pressure on the other teacher candidates, because we wanted to get everyone to play.
We ended up running out of time, so I didn't get a chance to teach my game. I was hoping to go because I was excited tot teach my game, and I thought the kids would enjoy it as well. Hopefully, the kids had a blast with the other games.
Next time, is our final day at St. Mary's and although I'm excited, It'll be sad to not go back.
This week at St. Mary's was really fun, but so crazy! The closer the the end came, the more and more excited the kids got because it was Halloween and they all wanted to go trick or treating. Today not only was fun but challenging because you had to keep everyone in line and well behaved during this chaotic time. Today was also hard because I didn't really know how to react with the older kids because I've never really dealt with that age group.
Overall it was hard to see where the students skills were. Both students were good at the throwing and catching sometimes, then other times it just didn't work. These kids were also hard to judge because half the time they just stood there. Once the Teacher Candidates got them going it became easier.
I can't wait to see what happens next week, when I teach the Gym group! I couldn't be more excited to see what's in store for me there!
In the beginning, I thought learning an international game that I had to teach would be hard, but in actuality it was a lot easier because I went in wanting to pick a simple game because we only had 10 minutes to teach. Knowing that I only had 10 minutes, I picked Korfball. I thought this game would be easy to teach because it was simple, almost like basketball. Almost everyone has played basketball at one time or another in their life, so I went off this concept. I first picked offense, and then narrowed it down to the passing/throwing skill to complete offense effectively. I practice over and over with my lesson, thinking I would breeze through this lesson, and do just as good as I did in Lab B. I was wrong, Lab C was a total mess.
I had a hard time saying everything I wanted to say, in the time that I had. I also became really flustered when I noticed that Prof. Yang had given Sarah and George blindfolds for the lesson. Although I should have expected that he was going to throw something my way, I wasn't expecting to be given a "disability". I was more then ready for people misbehaving, but the thought of having a student with a disability in my class, never struck my mind. I should have dealt with this obstacle better, instead I just ended up "degrading" the students, which wasn't my intention at all. I kept bring the fact that they were blind up, which was rude. I shouldn't have kept showing that they had a disability so I really need to work on that.
I also spent a lot of time talking, a majority of my lesson was not activity. After completing my time coding sheet, this really stood out. More then 70% of my lesson consisted of me talking. I really need to work on that. The students need to be active and my lesson didn't really do that. Ten minutes seemed like so much time, but it really isn't. I ran out of time, and rushed through the activities that I did do because I was running out of time. For Lab D I need to be ready for anything and everything that could be thrown at me. I have a lot to work out, but overall the more practice the better teacher I will be. I'm excited for more practice and Lab D, because I want to be the best I can be!
When I first found out The Jumping Jack and Jills were playing with the Pre-K kids this week, I couldn't have been more excited! I absolutely love children this age, and now that all my little cousins have grown up, I don't really know anyone this age. I started by playing tag with a few boys. Tag games became races, and then it turned into hanging out in the Lava pit, and debating what ice cream was the best! It was so much fun being a kid again!
There was a point in the Lava pit when all the kids kept saying that the lava was up to my head and that I was drowning. But when the kids ended up in the so called lava pit, they were never drowning in it. Apparently these pre-k kids are indestructable! The students also ended up covering me in leaves, which in the beginning didn't seem to fun for me, but seeing the kids get excited to cover me, made me happy.
I was so excited this past week and I can't wait for the next few weeks in lab!
When I first learned that Lab B was a Jump roping unit, I became really nervous. I was given two skills, the Side Straddle and the Forward Straddle. Once we had time to practice I became more and more comfortable with my lesson on the Side Straddle, so that was the one that I decided use and teach for my lesson. Although Prof. Yang didn't make it us mandatory for Lab B to have a visual aid or write out our lesson plan, I had done it anyways.
After I ended up forgetting my poster that I had made at home, which made me frustrated- I began to focus on how I could make sure my classmates remembered my lesson and the cues along with everything I had said in my lesson. I believe I did a great job at changing the level of my voice compared to my first lesson. Although at some points in my video you can't understand what I am saying, my voice was very clear, firm and projected well. Overall, I think I did a great job. I was really nervous, but because I had planned out what I wanted to say, and practiced it over and over again, the nervousness disappeared and it doesn't show in the video.
Although I did a lot less nervous actions in this video, I still need to work on what my hands are doing. In my first video I continued to clap every few words as I was speaking. Watching the video I realized this was very annoying, and distracts the student from learning my lesson. I didn't clap in Lab B, but I did swing my whistle. Although it wasn't nearly as bad as Lab A, I still need to work on these nervous habits.
After filling out the time coding work sheet, I realized I spent a lot of time instructing and explaining. Although the paper said I spent to much time on instruction and not enough time on the actual activity, I believe that every minute I was instructing was needed. If I had more time to teach this lesson, I definitely would've had the students practice more, but I feel as though with the time given I did well.
This was a great step in becoming a great teacher! It was my first video that I felt positive about my overall lesson. When I saw the Checklist for Lab B containing positive feedback, it made me really confident about my teaching. I have to make sure I say the safety statement and what I expect from the students by the end of the lesson. Using Hopscotch as my hook worked out really well because everyone knows what Hopscotch is. When I asked for someone to volunteer, Sarah stepped up and demonstrated it very well. I love using the whistle to get the students attention because it's easy to make it loud and catches the attention of the students. Everyone in every lesson needs a hook, their voice or whistle to signal for the lesson, and to check for understanding throughout all of their lessons. I believe if I keep doing these things, and improving like I did from Lab A to Lab B, then I'm on my way to being the best teacher I can be!!!
At St. Mary's it was our first time there actually teaching, and it was so exciting to be back! We had begun to realize what was expected from us as Teacher Candidates there. After the Gym group went, I became nervous because the kids still kinda did there own thing. Not all of them wanted to participate, and while you can't force them too, you need to try to persuade them to be involved. I was afraid that our song wouldn't be a hit. When It was time for our song, I was still really nervous until we got started. Once we started to dance and sing, it was fun! I got more comfortable with the kids and the atmosphere which will definitely help me when it's my turn to teach. Overall, I had a fantastic time and I can't wait until the next time!!
Teaching the lesson for the second time, felt better because I actually had time to think about what I wanted to say, and how I wanted to say it. Even though you'll never say everything exactly the way you planned, having a lesson planned out with ideas and things you want to talk about, makes the lesson structured and run more smoothly. Although there are things I need to work on, overall I think I did pretty well.
After hearing that Prof. Yang had forgot the equipment, I freaked out a little bit because I was worried about how I was going to teach a basketball lesson without the basketballs. I didn't know how well using imaginary basketballs would work. Another problem I had was that Shane had gone right before me, and had my hook. Which also made me panic because this meant I had four minutes to think of a whole new hook. This was challenging for me because I spent too much time freaking out instead of just relaxing and thinking. Although I was hoping that I could have stuck with my original hook, I realized this was good for me. A big part of teaching is thinking on your feet, being able to change or re-vamp the lesson to work with students who are struggling or excelling. Having circumstances that force me to think on my feet will help me become a better teacher!
In the beginning of the lesson, I asked the students to turn and face the hoop so that they weren't distracted by the other group in the gym. I also tried to broadcast my voice more then the first time. Although overall my voice was loud enough, there were moments that I couldn't hear myself because either the clapping from the other side of the gym, or my voice had softened. I need to make sure my voice stays loud at all times, even over my nervous clapping. With time, and lessons I'm sure my nervous clap will disappear because teaching will become more natural and comfortable. The more I feel comfortable, the more the students I'm teaching will be able to follow more smoothly. If I'm clapping all the time, or pacing because I'm nervous the students will notice it. They'll take advantage of my nervousness, and my lack of confidence.
Image via WikipediaIn class we were asked to step towards the front of the classroom if we thought Dodgeball should be apart of the classroom, and towards the back of the classroom if we thought it shouldn't be allowed. I stepped in the middle, because although I believe that there are some aspects of Dodgeball that are beneficial for students and there motor skills, such as teamwork, throwing, catching and dodging. I have a stronger opinion that Dodgeball should not acceptable for the Physical Education classroom. Games such as these singles the non-athletic students out, and they end up sitting out. These games not only single students out, but can put them down and make them feel bad about themselves because they aren't as athletic as the rest of the class. There are other games that can be played that keep everyone active and having fun, without singling out the weakest ones in the class, who need the active lifestyle the most.
The NASPE (National Association of Sports and Physical Education) also does not believe that students(K-12) should be playing Dodgeball in the classroom. The Physical Education programs need to give students the knowledge, skills and confidence to stay active their whole life, and games such as Dodgeball don't do this. They also want Physical Educators to give there students positive experiences
that make them want to exercise outside of the classroom.
As college students, we want to be a physically educated person. In Chapter one the book defines a physically educated person as someone who consists of many things; lives a physically active lifestyle, uses concepts and principles to help the learning and development of motor skills, and uses their knowledge and involvement in physical activity too show enjoyment, challenge, self-expression/ and social interaction (5). There are National Standards for Physical Education and these standards include Content Standards, Performance Standards, and Performance Benchmarks. Figure 1.1(5) shows how each of these all relate to each other. Content Standard is what the student is expected as a physically educated person, Performance Standard is what this student should achieve as a physically educated person, and Performance Benchmark is a certain behavior that shows the progress that student is making towards the goals expected (5). Having National Standards for Physical Education is important because you need guidelines that enforce Physical Educators across the nation to teach our youth about how to become and stay physically active throughout their lives.
Chapter two talks about the factors of health that affect our children and their motor development. Factors that affect Childhood include things such as nutrition, physically activity, illness, and lifestyle (33). Nutrition is especially important in your life because even if you stay physically active, your food choices can distinguish how healthy you really are. All of these factors affect one another, and depend on one another. Furthermore, chapter two discusses the development of a child's motor development. The book defines development in a child "as an upward process leading toward increased capabilities"(38). Table 2.1- Sequence of emergence of selected locomotor, manipulative, and stability abilities"(38) describes and lists movement patterns and different abliities of the movements listed. The table also lists the ages that these movements should happen.
Chapter three talks about fundamental movement skills, and the three categories that consist of these skills. The three movement skills are stability, locomotor, and manipulative. Stability movement skills form the basis of locomotor and manipulative skills because every movement has to involve some element of stability (53). Stability movement skills “are skills in which the body remains in place but moves around its horizontal or vertical axis” (53). Some examples of stability movements are balancing, twisting and stretching. Locomotor movement skills are movements in which the body moves horizontally or vertically from one place to the next (56). Some of these examples are walking,running and climbing. Lastly, manipulative movement skills are either gross motor manipulative or fine motor manipulation; movements that consist of force-to-force objects to object-handling activities that consist of precision accuracy, and accuracy movements to motor control, respectively (57). Some of these examples are throwing/catching and kicking.
All of these factors mentioned above are important to our profession and most importantly the health of our students. Through fundamental skill development and assessment you have the capability of creating a healthy and physically active foundation for a child that remains throughout their entire life.
1. What is meant by the idea that teaching is a goal-orientated activity? This means, in education your goal is to educate the students on how to have a better lifestyle. You're teaching them what they have to do to become healthy and stay active. It's important that as we grow, we learn and understand how important staying active is for us. Our goal is to stay active for our whole life. The book talks about defensible and not defensible programs for the Elementary level and the Secondary level. In both the elementary and secondary levels, the goals are the same. These goals are to teach the students certain skills and to make them practice them so that they can become better at the skills. In the "not defensible" programs, both the elementary and secondary programs "don't care" about teaching the students and the progression of the students skills. The non-defensible way is teaching them every skill in 5 minutes and letting them play the sport the next two weeks not caring about the progression of the students, just letting them play in tournaments and games.
5.Why is the movement task-student response unit of analysis so important in physical education? According to the book, "movement tasks are motor activities assigned to the student that are related to the content of the lesson". You need movement tasks to help progress the students abilities and learning of the activities being taught in the current lesson. This is important because physical education is all about moving and staying active. If a student isn't moving in your activity, they also don't care. Our job is to teach them that they should care, and how to keep there bodies healthy. We want them to care about their bodies and staying healthy. The student response is important in physical education because this is where as a teacher, you correct and help the student become better at there individual performance.
7.What is the relationship between teaching functions and teaching skills? List two teaching functions teachers must perform, and describe two alternative behaviors teachers can choose to perform these functions. Teaching function is the focus on the purpose of teaching, and teaching skills is how you do it, your skills in general on being/becoming a great teacher. Two teaching functions are identifying outcomes and planning. Two alternative behaviors are content and management. Content behavior involves the task, and different ways to handle it and accomplish it. Management behaviors deal with the structure and organization of the class, and how to handle it.
I thought I was speaking loud enough and clear, but in the video you barely could hear my instructions. I thought I had every ones attention but when I looked at the video I found that people were easily distracted by the other group. I need to put my group of learners with there backs towards the distractions, that way it's easier to focus on what I'm saying and teaching and not what is happening behind them. I should explain the importance of shooting the lap up vs the jump shot. Instead I just showed them how to do it when I should have taught them that a lay up is important because it gets you closer to the hoop, therefore hopefully making the shot easier to go into the basket. The Camera was at a good angle to see who I needed to help correct, because from where I stood I could only notice some mistakes instead of all the mistakes that I found from watching the video. I need to make sure they're all doing what I asked, and I need to correct them so they do it right. My steps were starting at the block, then taking three steps, then a full running lay up. I didn't do a great job at making sure the steps were actually done. In the end when I gathered them all up, I should have summarized what we learned. I good thing I did was ask if anyone had any questions for me. Another thing I thought I did was help people who needed help. It didn't really show up on the tape because I was hidden, but when people weren't doing it right, and needed help I explained it better. I reminded them that there arm in a 90 degrees goes up when your leg in a 90 degrees moves. That everything is connected.
I think George was the only one who faced us away from the distractions, which was good. He sat us all down facing the bleachers so we had nothing to look at but him. This made us focus on him and not become distracted by the other group.
I've never had a blog, or even been on one, and when I first heard about having to get a twitter and a blog I kind of freaked out. Technology is quite scary sometimes. I didn't really do anything this summer besides work, but in previous summers I've been a camp counselor for a christian sports camp. It's called Summers Best Two Weeks. It was really cool because I taught them about sports, how they could become better athletes, and how to become great people but also better followers of Christ. I genuinely cared about everyone of the campers life.
