My Prezi

CLICK HERE TO SEE MY PREZI!...enjoy :)

Everything good must come to an end....Lab 6 at St. Mary's

The last lab at St. Mary's was a Christmas theme and it was fun, as always. I have had a great experience at St. Mary's and I have realized that being a physical education teacher is exactly what I want to do as an occupation. I would say though, that I enjoyed working with the younger kids (PRE K and Kindergarten) the best. My group stayed in the gym and and did some games, my game was the snow ball relay race. I think my game went very well. I did not have the buckets that I thought I was going to have so I had to use hula hoops in place of buckets. After the gym, we went to the cafeteria and interacted with the kids playing some board games and talking about Christmas/ the Holidays. Children always love to talk about their family and presents. We went outside and played at the playground after that and we played tag games, as always. I have to say some of these kids are faster than me, that is for sure. In ending, the closing game and song was awesome. Great way to end my experience at St. Mary's elementary school! Here is my Lab 6

Great job decorating the door!

Best TA Ever!

     

Thank You St. Mary's =]

Gobble....gobble....Thanksgiving is here!

Lab 5 was a Thanksgiving Theme at St. Mary's. The opening games I thought were great, they incorporated the loco-motor skills very well. The two skills to observe this week were the stationary bounce and the kick. The children were pretty good at these skills. Better at the kicking though, they had a lot more control with a ball on the ground then with a ball bouncing it up and down. I find that it is easier for me to give the children directions for my game, I try to make sure they understand but the directions are short and sweet. Visualization is key I have found with the children, if you can describe the game to them where they can visualize what is going to go on they stay interested. Teaching is always a mystery, especially at St. Mary's. You never know who will participate or how they will react to your game. I like this mystery because it keeps me engaged and always on my toes! I always have a great time at St. Mary's...time flies when you are having fun!

HERE IS LAB 5

Hectic Halloween At St. Mary's Lab 4

Lab 4 at St. Mary's was so much fun! It was actually Halloween and the kids were crazy, but I enjoyed lab. It made me really get into the Halloween spirit. Everyone was hype about Halloween, but the costumes that some people wore was awesome. My game went pretty well I thought, the kids seemed to enjoy it. They liked that they were either bats or spiders. Some of the kids are very well listeners and when I asked a question to clarify the understanding of the game the same kids were raising their hands, so I actually would call on one of the children that were not raising their hand to see if everyone truly understood the instructions I was giving. I think this technique kept everyone listening to my instructions for the game because they might be called on to clarify what our goal was or the rules. The skills for this lab were the overhand throw and catching, from what I saw through out the day the older kids really understand the fundamentals behind the overhand throw and could catch objects pretty well, but the younger kids had a few problems here and there. It was a beautiful day so we went outside on the play ground and some of these kids, especially this one girl have such good upper body strength to make it all the way across and back on the monkey bars. I was super impressed! The whole day was a great day, I had music on my i-pod that was classic Halloween sounds so by the end of the day I was pretty halloweended out!

Here is my LAB 4

Something to think about.....What is Character?

C-H-A-R-A-C-H-T-E-R
Good character is what many people say they want in an employee, student, coach, athlete, ect. Example, We hear the question all the time what does it take to be a good athlete? A lot of coaches say well he/she must have a good character.... But what is good character...what is the definition? In my PED 284 self-defense class with Dr. Malmberg we had a great discussion about this. The definition of character is "the sum of the virtues". No matter what culture or society a person may come from there are behaviors that are set that mostly everybody would agree on, we center right and wrong around character. What is a virtue? Well, here they are: Honesty, Self-Discipline, Prevalence, Responsibility, Respect, Loyalty, Faith, Friendship, Work, Compassion, and Courage. In my opinion it should be everybody's goal to be the best person they can be, be virtuous in as many ways as possible! You are what you do...actions speak louder then words!
"Only a virtuous nation can sustain a democracy"- Benjamin Franklin
 "One becomes virtuous by performing virtuous acts"- Aristotle
"The Book of Virtues" By William J. Bennett
     

Lab 3 St. Mary's

Lab 3 ^^^

Lab 3 at St. Mary's was a sports theme and it was so much fun. It was cool to see the automatic connection between some of the kids and students because they were wearing their favorite sports team jersey.I think the opening games that we observed went very well. The games incorporated the leap, horizontal jump, and slide. For the most part the kids were very good at these skills. I was part of the special projects group and we made posters, I need to improve on how I draw feet, I learned that. After when the kids came into the gym at the end of the day I witnessed some very good hoola hooping! In ending I lead the Hokey Pokey dance and song to end the day, it was a familiar tune that the kids enjoyed!  

Mini-Conference

The mini-conference here at Cortland was awesome! So glad that I went! Being a new jr. transfer student this fall I did not know what to really get involved with, I joined the PE major's club my first week here and so happy  that I did. At the mini-conference last Friday I was able to help out; Thursday night I went to Park Center to help set up and prepare, I was able to assist in making sure that the technological (projectors, screens, computers, ect.) were available and in working order for the next day. On Friday I helped get everything set up at the pool for kayaking. Mr. Busch used to teach at Chenango Forks High School and his specialty was educating students on kayaking in the swimming pool and then after then would learn the correct safe way to kayak they would take a field trip and go kayaking on a river. Mr. Busch was a very friendly, talented, and knowledgeable man. I got the opportunity to have a good conversation with him about the career of Physical Education and if he had any suggestions. His biggest piece of advice was to go outside of your comfort zone and take chances to learn something new everyday. After his presentation I really would love to take a kayaking class and become more educated about different activities that I could possibly do as a Physical Education teacher that in a sense are out of the "normal" team sports activities that I am sure many of us experienced when we were in high-school, (a.k.a basketball, soccer, tennis, volleyball, ect). These common activities are yes popular and need to be addressed, but it is important to have variety available. In order to have a good program though the teacher (me) needs to have experience and be educated about that certain activity, therefore it is important for me to take steps outside my comfort zone and use the opportunity of being at Cortland for college to explore these options! I also was involved in the flash mob in the morning to "Cortland Rock". It was so much fun! =) And the video was great->>>   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-2VdeDjqRk

Lab 2 at St. Mary's

The second day at St. Mary's was awesome! It was a lot less intimidating then the first day was. Especially because we had the same group of kids that we had the first week. Our theme was friendship, I thought this was a great first theme to have. Friendship is so important in school. Running, galloping, and hopping were the three skills we were to focus on this week. I was in the group with the Pre-K. We were fortunate to yet again be at St. Mary's on a beautiful day, we spend a lot of time outside playing and observing the children. As always these 3 and 4 year olds were full of energy; they already had games in their head that they wanted to play with us. These kids are extremely strong especially their upper body strength, they hang on the monkey bars for a lot longer then I could! We went inside for snack. I had a craft to do with them (paper bag puppets), but we did not have enough time to do the craft. Beka then read them a book for a little bit, the kids really do like story time, they all have their favorite books that is for sure. We went into the gym and then played some fun games with them. The game where we had to get the stuffed animals and then throw them through the hoola hoop was great, also the game where we had different color hoola hoops on the ground and if your color was called you had to get out of the hoop. This was great for the kids to learn their colors as well as getting exercise. Ending the day the chicken dance was great the kids that were left I think really enjoyed it. I am looking forward to the next lab day at St. Mary's!


Here is my Lab 2!

"Shamed" Games..

"Shamed" games are very controversial in the physical education world. Some people are in support of having these games banned in schools, while others are huge advocates of these games. Some of these shamed game include dodge ball, duck duck goose, red rover, simon says, and line soccer. Personally I am in the middle of supporting these games and not supporting these games. Since I am in college learning how to be a physically educated person it is part of my duty to encourage young children to be physically educated as well. Young people love to learn and if they watch people that are good role models then they will be encouraged to have a healthy lifestyle. These games are yes physically challenging, but when you have a class of children that are clearly at different ability levels then these games can be seen as embarrassing or picking on one specific person or a whole group ex.(gender). A huge problem in today's youth and something that has always been an issue in schools is bullying. There is so much peer pressure that goes on in schools and if a child is already getting peer pressure outside of physical education class then they most likely are going to be bullied in the locker room or during class, it is part of a physically educated person to help stop this malicious behavior. We should promote physical activity as a way to relive stress and a way to relax and a sort of "get away" from daily stresses. These shamed games I am in full support of children playing on their own time like at their birthday parties and outside of school, so they have a choice to participate or not. In school phys ed is a class and a students grade goes down if they do not participate, so in a sense they are forced to participate. By no means is every child going to enjoy every activity, but there should always be an alternative to a certain activity that is going on that day. These shamed games there is really not an alternative activity to do , usually the whole gym is being used for that specific game.  Physical education is a subject in school that is changing little by little year to year. Dodge ball is yes so much fun to play, but in my opinion doesn't focus on the overall well being of every child involved. The self-esteem of some children can be crushed and may feel like they are the ones being picked on in class.  Co-ed dodge ball to me is just overall not a good idea, maybe girls vs. girls and boys vs boys would be a better idea if this game is ever played in class. When I become a teacher someday I really want to do just that teach! In a lot of these shamed games there is not a lot of teaching going on. It is mostly reffing, (in, out, go, stop) there is no real technique to these games. I know we all probably played these shamed games in school and had a lot of fun. But for those few kids that felt pressured and picked on this was the worst experience for them. As a teacher I want to provide education to students on how to stay fit and enjoy physically activity, not dread it. My students will hopefully learn that by being a physically educated person it helps many aspects of an individuals life. There are many activities that concentrate on relaxation, strength, cardio, ect. I want to focus on day to day activity, things that can become habit to that person everyday. As a teacher I plan on never playing these "shame" games in class. But outside of class I fully support these games because the child can choose if they want to participate or not and enjoy themselves at the same time.
     http://www.sparkpe.org/ <<<< This is a very interesting cite discussing some of the same issues.

^^^^YES?.....NO?...I Don't Know....Depends on the situation and setting!
Tons of fun....YES!! School appropriate and educational....NO!!

Lab 1 St. Mary's

First Lab of Motor Development Class at St. Mary's (worked with Pre-K) Lab 1 

Assignment #1 Summery chap 1-3

There are many factors included in being and becoming a great physical education teacher. Kids are so excited and willing to learn new things and try new activities. It is part of our job as physical educators to show and assist children in as many activities as possible to encourage them to be the most healthy they can be! To be fit is a major part of being a healthy person. And to be physically fit means exercise. There are so many ways that kids can  exercise, and the best part is they like to run around and exercise! We need to encourage them by having a positive attitude and by being a positive role model in their life. Every child is different and unique, some may like swimming, others may like soccer, some may be  really good skill wise and others will not be so talented, that doesn't matter the important part is they are working towards keeping fit. Movement is involved in exercise. You can categorize movement into three different category's stability movements such as a forward roll, locomotor movements such as running, and manipulative movements such as throwing. It is important to give each child some individual evaluation and asses their progress throughout time. Movement skill can be part of the child's life not just in school, but at home too, it is important and beneficial to the child to get encouragement and help at home. Over time we will see children grow, develop movement abilities and motor control. These children hopefully will keep these fit skills with them the rest of their lives. If we are a physically educated individual then in return it is our responsibility to educate other people to become and work toward being a physically educated person. Movement enhances a child's perceptual-motor and cognitive concept learning, promotes the development of a positive self-concept, and promotes positive socialization.

    http://www.ymca.net/

"We believe the values and skills learned early on are vital building blocks for life. Because of the Y, more young people in neighborhoods around the nation are taking a greater interest in learning and making smarter life choices. At the Y, children and teens learn values and positive behaviors, and can explore their unique talents and interests, helping them realize their potential. That makes for confident kids today and contributing and engaged adults tomorrow."

1st blog motor development!

Kids love to learn and I am so excited to continue to work with kids and teach them ways to stay fit and active! I love to teach swimming lessons at my summer job as a lifeguard, it is so rewarding to see how fast some children learn, also see the improvement of children that were once afraid of the water!