Some thoughts about a great semester!

So as the semester comes to an end, I can honestly say I can't believe it went this fast. I still remember the first day when I was having trouble remembering every ones name and now most of the people I consider a friend. I talk to them outside of class and they are in many of my other classes. I believe this class help all us of become better teachers, helped us learn how to work with others, and allowed all of us to open up with each other and consider each other friends. I know that I've improved and still have lots of room for improvement. I thank my classmates for helping through this class and the semester. I also thank them for their feedback and can say that I respect their thoughts and appreciate their constructive feedback.

A pictures worth a thousand words...

This picture was from my lab C teaching assignment. It was the second lesson I taught and I was standing by the visual aids trying to review what the class had learned from the first lesson. So I was checking for understanding from lesson one and reviewing to make sure they knew how to drop the hammer.

Looks better like this!!

Spreadsheet for Quiz 6

What a mess....

I wish I could say I kicked butt during my lab D but it definitly didn't go how I pictured it. I found that when your teaching something you know really well you have to be aware of the fact that though I know it really well and find it easy doesn't mean everyone else is going to find it easy. I didn't do a good job explain each step in great detail and messed up on some counts because its a dance I'm use to doing and just assumed everyone would get it. I also should have brought some visual aids because that would have helped the students that couldn't remember all of the parts. Overall it was a great learning experience because in the future if I wanted to teach a dance like this I know now that I have to make sure that I'm still breaking the dance down enough that people will get it and that I'm not assuming they will know it because I do. If I could do it again I would make several changes but I am glad to have such a wonderful learning experiences. In all my other classes I can learn dances, martial arts Kata's, how to throw a ball but it doesn't mean I'd be efficient in teaching such a task. I believe that this lab and this class help Physical Education students understand that fact. It teaches us new ways and techniques to reach out to our students and allow them to make the most of the PE experience. It also allows us future teaches to learn how technology can be used inside the PE classroom. Lab D packet check it out! Also take a look at a block plan for a dance unit.

Butterflies....

So tomorrow I teach my last big lab for EDU 255, the big bad lab D. I'm actually nervous about it because I'm on my own and because I know their going to make some of my fellow students act up. Which is something I believe I can handle but I still have a little bit of butterflies about how the whole lesson is going to go. Also, tomorrow I have to present my power point for the big lab my group has been doing in PED 434, so tomorrow is a big day, but once it's over I'll feel very releaved. In 434 my group has been teaching bowling and its been going really well and I think our power point should go really well but getting up in front or a class is always a little scary and tends to give me butterflies. I might as well get the butterflies out now though, considering this is what I'm going to be doing from the time I graduate till the time I retire.....

Who's the Ace?

I taught my second lesson for Lab C on Ace, King, Queen today and it went much better then my first one. I felt much more comfortable in front of the class but I did make one mistake that I have to be careful about. I have a tendency to say "OK class, hold your balls." Which wouldn't be so bad if I was working with adults but when I'm working with Middle School kids I realize it would probably take me the rest of the class to get them to stop laughing because I told them to hold on to their balls. It's a lesson that I'll have to learn and develop other ways of getting the students attention. I think that overall the class had a good time with the game which is something I take pride in. I hope that my students are never bored, because I want my students to enjoy physical education as much as I did in high school. I understand its going to be hard but I'm up for the challenge because I believe there is a way for everyone to enjoy physical activity, I just have to be able to build my whole class up for success. Lesson Plan number one and Lesson Plan number two!

MP3 lesson

(To Professor Yang)

Without a disc? Ok
sounds good.

(To the whole class)

Ok, guys can everybody
bring it in around the light please. Thank you. We’re going to
work on defending but we’re not going to use Frisbees obviously
cause the lights are out. So, everybody is going to need to get a
partner and when I say go, you guys are going to work on defending. A
couple of rules are you have to be arms length apart from your
partner. So if Mikes my partner and I’m defending him then I’d
have to be like arms length away.

(To Mike)

No just on arms length
(laugh)

(To the whole class)

Ok? And I can’t
put my hands in his face, I can’t go like this or anything like
that it’s kind of like this and that’s really all the
rules you need to know. You need to know that he can do back hand and
for hand so you have to be aware of both sides. Ok? Alrighty? So pair
up and go. Does anyone not have one, cause I can be a partner? If
someone doesn’t have one?

(To Courtney)

I can be yours if you
want and I can watch a little bit. You don’t need to wear the
piney (laugh). So if we’re arms length away and you’re
defending me you can’t go like this in my face and you can’t
jump over my head, so it’s kind of like your boxing someone out
in basketball but facing them. (laugh) ok we’ll switch. Yep. Oh
your good.

(To Toby)

Oh yes she did do the
spin move on me.

(To Joe)

Ok. Nice job.

(To Katie)

So you want to make
sure your arms length away and no yelling in his face, I know you
want to.

(To Joe)

Nice job on your throw
and block.

(To Ciara)

Very nice.

(To Toby)

Nice job Toby, It is.

(To the whole class)

Alright everybody can
bring it in around the light again. Who can raise their hand and
tell me one rule you’re your defending? John…..ok…Brian….ok
and Joe. I don’t know how to stop it.

Lab C part 2

I taught the second part of my lab c lesson on Friday the 31st HALLOWEEN! I thought it went pretty well. I taught the same game as the first part Ace, King Queen, except things went a lot better then last time. I had the students get into groups of four and play a game, but without all the rules. They learned the rotation and after that they got to use distraction. I did make a big mistake when I asked them to hold their balls. That the second time I've done that and I have to get use to not saying that because if I was in a middle school I would lose my students attention by saying that. I would never get them to stop laughing and repeating it. Its just a habit I'm going to have to break. I also didn't make a safety statement in the beginning and I had a group of boys not paying attention to those around them so I had to stop and explain to them that they needed to calm down. I also made the task harder for them by supplying them with a smaller ball, I did this because I felt that the first task was too easy and thats why they started acting up. I'm really happy with how the lesson went but I know that I still have some improvements to make.

I taught bowling in my 434 class last Friday, and within this lesson plan I had to have an assessment. My partner and I split the class in two groups and she took one group over to do "Blindfold bowling", which by the way is a really fun activity, and I took one group over to complete our assessment. After what should have been 5-7 minutes we were suppose to switch. Now our assessment took a little longer then we planned and we almost ran out of time but thankfully we fit everyone in to be assessed. This lesson taught me that I need to be more cautious when it comes to my time management. Our assessment was a rubric that would score the students on a one through four vs. how many pins the student knocked down with one roll of the ball. The assessment seemed to work out fine, our other two group members go in another week and hopefully our time management skills are a little better. I think that the time we put on our lesson plans doesn't always work out the way we plan when we move into a classroom setting.

Last Monday I taught my first big lesson in my 255 class. I would say it didn't go so well, for many reason but I did what I could with what I had. I'm actually looking forward to our next lab, which is our D lab because I think that I'd rather work by myself. I'm not the biggest fan of group activity unless I know I can count on my group members. For lab C my partner and I are teaching a handball like game named "Ace, King, Queen" it's actually very enjoyable and I think once we teach again and get into actually games the class will love the activity. We only got to one activity last time which was the class as a whole using one ball and hitting it from floor to wall. I hope to have a little bit more progression on Friday when I teach again and maybe we'll get a chance to get into some real games using smaller groups and more balls.

Mini Conference

So I went to my first Physical Education mini conference. I enjoyed it and will probably attend more. I went to the polar technology speaker and I found all his technology to be way over my head. I've never seen anything like the devices he had and I thought "how cool is it that I could bring some of this technology into my classroom in the future." I'd never seen anything like that, not when I was in school and I don't think many of my past teachers would know anything about that. I also took part in our introduction "We Will, We Will Teach You" which I thought was so fun. I actually wish I took part in more of the conference. Either by working at it or helping to coordinate it. Maybe in the future I'll take more of a part in the conference because I think things like this are wonderful for the major and the career. It helps keep Physical Educators up to date and helps up coming Physical Educators gain an upper hand when moving into such a competitive market. All around I enjoyed the conference and would love to help out and attend a future one.