Sunday, April 22, 2012

Easter Lab!

The latest lab had to be the best lad yet! There were more St. Mary's students there then ever and they were very willing to play our games compared to normal. My group had pre k and they were outside on the playground which was very fun. The first thing I learned out there was that no matter where I am, I'm "it". It seemed as soon as I tagged a student the game would end another kid would run up to me and I would be it again for the next game. Outside I did have some success on putting together large scale playground games like sharks and minnows, sly fox, Simon says, and even the compliment game. Back in the gym things went even better as all the kids were into the games. My game was a mixture of musical chairs and hot potato. The kids had to move around to the music and pass a ball and when a music stopped if they had a ball they would have to pass it off then do 10 jumping jacks.
The lab went really well and the kids all seemed to have a good time!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

You only can if you play your video games longer honey

Most kids would love to hear those words but haven't yet. The good news is maybe they will start to if video game technology like the equipment in the lab in park center becomes more prevalent in houses and class rooms.
 In this lab there were all different types of games that kids would love and I know this because at heart I am one and I was running around having a blast! In this lab room there was the regular Wii, and X Box Connect which were a good time of course but my favorite game was "Cars" on a Ps2 but the accelerator button was a spinning bike it was a crazy good workout and so much fun. Other games like NBA and Madden were played using foot steppers it was really cool to see and it brought me some hope for the future of video games having anything to do with health.

Don't Have Babies


Sunday, April 1, 2012

Lab 4

This was my first lab conducting a game for everyone else to assess. My game was Kermit Volley Ball which was basically newcomb, I was going to use this game to get the kids more interested because last lab they were not willing to participate and games that are more traditional seem to pull them in. This lab the students were actually very willing to participate to my surprise so my game that lack originality was not necessary. It did make it very easy for my peers to assess the children and the game went well and maintained their attention but if I new they were going to be that interested I would have chosen another game that kept every one more involved. I actually forgot to add the second ball which would have helped with this because I was making sure the kids passed to each other. The rest of lab was fun it was beautiful out and we went outside where I joined some tag, hide and seak games as well as playing Star Wars with some of the boys this was a lot of fun and reminded me of games I played back in elementary school when there was free time.
I also received some of the hardest high fives by a little girl that was more interested in handing out killer high fives then playing games with her peers.
OUCH!MY hand was not a fan of this so I showed her a better less bruise inducing high five. All and all I thought the kids were well behaved and that the lab went well for how nice it was outside.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

My Spring Break

My spring break was very nice I did not do very much but I got a very well needed break after a busy week that was exhausting. I mostly slept in, hung out with my family and played with my two golden retrievers. I did some home work and saw friends but one of the best things I did over break was go to my moms school and meet her life skills class in this class all of the students have disabilities, they all new me because my mom talks about me and my brother regularly in class. They all asked me about my dog Toby and asked me questions about school. We danced, played Kan Jam and talked during class it was a very good time!

Monday, March 5, 2012

My First Lab!

Due to me being sick and having SUNY Acts last week was my first real lab where I actually got to work with kids bring my game into a real classroom (aka Gym)! I was a little worried because I have herd stories from my friends about none of the kids playing their games. See the thing about St. Mary's is that all the kids have been in class all day before we have a chance to see them or work with them. So I have herd many stories of kids not participating when my peers attempted to bring in skills games, Doctor Yang commonly says "If you can make it in St. Mary's you can make it anywhere". I was still excited because I knew my game was fun and I made it even more exciting making the variation capture the flame, instead of capture the flag! The kids loved it the only problem is there were not many kids, my game was a big hit for the 6 kids that were there. Teachers hoped in and we made due and everyone had a really good time playing. Later when we debriefed the teachers talked about how the lab went and we thought we did well its just hard to teach when there are not really enough kids to be taught, so everyone had to make changes but I think it went really well and I really enjoyed it!

The GREAT DEBATE (P.E. style of course)

Let me start by saying this debate was a lot of fun. I'v never debated about something that was not politics related before and it was very nice to debate on a lighter but still important and very relevant subject to me. The Great Debate refers to a debate over a curriculum focus, this focus would either be on stick sports, life time sports, or skill based sports(my topic). The debate was set up so that the three groups would battle it out, each getting time foe an opening statement a short power point and a rebuttal against both then the "board" would decide who won the great debate and what would be taught in the curriculum. After all the battling and many good points were made on both sides the board awarded .....A TIE! between life time sports and skill based sports. The debate was streemed live as well as recorded for all to see on http://www.rockstarpe.org/ as well as tweeted about and recorded via a flip camera and note takers.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Is Line Soccer over the Line?

The answer is yes, Line Soccer is defiantly a very common game in many elementary schools. I remember playing this game throughout elementary school in all different grades. The point of this game is to call out students numbers and have students on teams on opposite lines run out get the ball in the middle of the gym and have them run back and shoot on the opposition's goal with the other student attempting to defend him or her. This game is in The P.E. Hall of shame for a few reasons first it has minimal student participation time being that most students are sitting on the sidelines weighting for their numbers to be called I remember when playing this game itching to get out and play and only getting to play three or four times a class. Another problem is the humiliation factor for the slow or student that is not as developed as the kid they are competing against. Last it does not help a student develop good soccer skills students will just be rushing to get a shot off at the net so they do not look bad in front of their entire class. This why this Line Soccer should not be taught in the class room you can find this and other games in the P.E. Hall Of Shame here at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B1foWn97mAcaYWYzZTcwNTAtMWY0MS00MjBiLTkyOWItZGZjOWYzMDk0ZjUy

Sunday, February 19, 2012

The web making the world a healthier place?

The Internet is becoming a bigger part of the average persons everyday life, and with many realizing its worth in terms of personal health the world wide web is becoming a large influence on how people learn sports, activities and skills and how people monitor their progression. The internet is completely full of videos or websites that have to do with getting in shape "get a six pack in 6 weeks" ads seem to be every where. Personal I have gained some help on skills for freestyle skiing, just from viewing videos on youtube and forums and posts on how to do certain tricks. http://www.newschoolers.com/ns/forums/readthread/thread_id/677984/ this is an example of this. Just by watching tons of videos you can help your muscle memory learn movements while your dreaming and certain skills can be learned quicker. Also there is the more direct approach to using the internet to get in shape and learn movements. People interested in losing weight can watch work out videos and imitate them right in their own home for example. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_HWEoGoxgI Another way the internet can help is with contest like http://healthynewyear.challenge.gov/ this promotes people to show how using technology to better there life and fitness. I made my video about how I use the TEVO system of using a camera and TV with a delay to show my dives and improve them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBqwFXQVOOE&context=C31c957cADOEgsToPDskL9cZL4etmUZMIaB5juWOCB

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

SUNYACS

Last week I missed lab due to going away with my team for the swim championship between all D3 SUNY schools this is called SUNYACS. This was a very fun weekend, it is the end of a hard season of lots of work and at this competition your get to see everyone's hard come together and see final results. I am a diver and I did not have a very good meet but I did make some good changes and learn for next year. As a team we took second and many swimmers dropped a lot of time.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Virtus Training

Sister Harriet came to class Monday to explain to us the dangers of not noticing child predators in the schools we will one day be working in. She used the Virtus program to my class and this consisted of two videos. After viewing these videos the class shared how they felt and talked about proper ways of stopping horrible acts like the ones described in these videos.

These videos were pretty disturbing and alarming to watch, they showed pretty good detail of the feelings of the victims as well of as the feelings of the predators. Sometimes it was painful to watch mostly when they described doing the acts or in the victims case things that were done to them. What shocked me the most is that the accusers seemed to show no remorse for the crimes that they committed. The served time ruined lives and tore apart churches and families and they said given the choice they would do it over again. Personally I can not understand this but these people have problems and it is my responsibility while I am in schools to protect children from unhealthy people like the ones in these videos.

The at SU and Pen State are good examples of people not reacting properly to very important information that could help and protect many young children that predators have access to. I thing Joe Paterno really made a big mistake when he heard about this horrible abuse and sis not take the appropriate steps to make sure it was dealt with properly. I do not know about the SU problem as much as I do with Pen State but it defiantly shows that these issues can have a large impact nationally as well as on individuals.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Ch 1


 1) Learning Through the Physical
The text book tells us that good P.E. can "both the cognitive and affective development of children"  this means that learning through the physical is important when teaching children. By learning through movement  students not only learn skills but also but important things like, communication self esteem and teamwork. Positively utilizing these methods while making games fun for kids will make will make the students respond better to Physical Activity for the rest of their lives. 



How does Physical Activity Impact Affective Growth? 
Physical activity impacts Affective Growth by helping kids learn self respect and how to respect others through physical activity. Affective Growth is defined  "learning that increases the ability of children to act, interact, and react effectively with other people as well as with themselves" Affective growth  is pretty much the growth of a child self esteem.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

St Mary's First Day!

So before observing for my first time I was very started to start working with kids in a real class room setting I have been waiting for that day for a long time. I was expecting some craziness but I discovered that it was a lot more hectic then I originality thought it was going to be. It was defiantly a good experience that I am looking forward to repeating.

As a whole St. Mary's after school program seemed very well organized, everyone seemed to know where and when the needed to be at places and with students. Students received lots of attention from my peers and the TAs it seemed to be a very good learning situation for everyone. The one thing that seemed to be  problem to me was that gym was a little over crowded. There was defiantly not enough space to have every one play the games they needed to in the gym but everyone had fun anyway.

Although I really enjoyed games like sharks and Minos and the parachute activities, what I enjoyed most was getting to know a fourth grader that was on the side for a concussion. Being that I had one recently I knew how bad it was to sit out and watch all of your friends sit on the side and have fun. I showed him how to roll a basket ball in his arms and her had fun learning that and although he took a while to open up  he seemed to have a good time which really made me happy.

Most of the older students had pretty well developed motor skills although some of the younger ones did not. This was such a good fun experience and I cant wait to do this the rest of the year!

First Class!

With in the first few weeks of coming to Cortland I have herd about the P.E. class called 201, This class seemed to be empathized as one of the most important classes that I was going to need to take. I heard taking it with Professor Yang was more difficult if you were not skilled with technology which I am not, but realizing that the internet is one of the most important and growing ways to market your self to get a job when I graduate I took on the challenge.
When I got into this class I was happy and relived to find that two of my best friends along with some other friends were in the class and that if I needed could help explain things to me regarding the blogs and other issues I encounter. The first day we reviewed a lot of the class policy as well as what the teacher expected of us. He explained to us how to handle the children so we wouldn't get in trouble or be put in situations that made us uncomfortable.
 So far I like blogging about this class I feel like it is a good way to show my growth and progression as a P.E teacher, and I am looking forward to looking back and seeing this later on in my career.

My first blog!

Blogs have always interested me, I have always wondered what blogs were and how they were used. Never did I ever intend on creating one to be perfectly honest, they never seemed to appeal to me as something I would enjoy doing in my free time as a general rule I have always tried to stay off the internet when I have spare time because I have always looked at it as a means of recreation that did not involve, getting up going out side and being physically active. I told my self it was better to go hangout with friends,surf, skate, ski, go exercise, learn a new instrument or how to cook new things or read new books. The idea behind this class of using blogging to enhance and share my skills a teacher seems to change all that around. Documenting my learning and growth seem like an effective way to use the internet to better my teaching as well as others.
  Over the winter session I was up at Cortland with the swim team for intersession. I am a diver who dives one and three meter. There were two a day practices a day  that kept me very busy but I did have just enough time to take an online psychology which will be helpful in becoming a teacher because teachers need to understand human behavior and how the mind works and I did need to take that class as well to graduate. So ending my first blog I would like to say this will be the first of many and I am excited to see how this new tool helps me reach my final goal of becoming a well rounded teacher!