Thursday, December 10, 2009

Poolside Portfolio Showcase


Today I attended the Portfolio showcase held by the upperclassmen of SUNY Cortland's Physical Education program. This gave me an opportunity to view other Phys.Ed students portfolio's, it was a great tool for sparking ideas for my own In my Ped 201 class we have started our professional portfolio, this will track my progress through the Physical education teacher program. The portfolio will be a collection of artifacts that highlight my teaching competencies and to demonstrate my readiness to teach. After I complete my student teaching i will be able to use my portfolio in a job interview to highlight my skills and abilities to be a physical educator.

Monday, December 7, 2009

New generation of positive gaming


Today I was fortunate enough to be invited to a workshop about this new gaming system that promotes a healthy alternative to gaming. It is called Idance, going into this I had a little knowledge about the system, but all i really thought it was a modified version of Dance Dance Revolution. Boy was I wrong this program truly is the future of gaming. First of all you can play up to 32 players at once, that is a whole class in most instances . Everyone can be on the same skill level this works best when you have a class of beginners or you can modify each individual mats difficulty level as the Idancer becomes more confident. In having this many players play at once you are almost guaranteed to have positive competition among the students because after every song you get a detailed description of your steps. After every song it provides a graph analysis, where you stand in comparison to the rest of the class, how many combos in a row and other features that can help to make students more physically fit. From the teaching aspects of the system you can control all features of the game from one remote. If a group of students is having trouble and are stuck between two levels a instructor can go ahead and add bells, bumps, or claps at every note to stimulate the auditory sensory rather than just the visual sense. This is a great tool that helps the students drastically. There is more; to get the whole class involved you can join all the mats together to form a square and everyone can play in unison as well as switch mats in a circular rotation it really is fun to watch as well as be apart of. The possibilities are endless with the system and I am looking forward to gaining more knowledge about the future of gaming.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

A light snow fall brings christmas spirit to St. Mary's

This week's lab concluded our experience at St. Mary's elementary school. The theme of the day was Christmas in order to get the the kids in the spirit of the holidays we made a game up that had the children be Santa's helpers because santa's had become sick. So he needed the kids help. Half the kids were elves and the others were reindeer who pulled the elves from house to house dropping off presents for Santa. As they dropped of presents they had to do different activities. The kids loved pulling each other around on the scooters, as well as bringing lots of cookies to santa to get him better. After the kids made it to all of the house they had to go tell santa all bout their journeys and what movements they had to make in order to make it to the next house. They kids enjoyed talking about their different travels and sharing with each other. Most of all they enjoyed helping Santa out when he needed them. This lab was our last time with the St.Mary's kids, I have learned alot from these kids and i am thankful for having the opportunity to teach them as well as learn from them.

Monday, November 30, 2009

A feast for St. Mary's



Today in lab we started out in the cafeteria playing board games; the two most popular were the roll out checkers and the connect four. Luckily I was fortunate enough to play against Justin who was about nine years old. According to Justin he had never lost in a game of checkers. To my surprise he was pretty good i had begun to think he hadn't ever lost until i found out that he has some small variation in his way of playing checkers. As soon as we stopped playing by Justin's rules and started playing by the right rules Justin had begin to show his weaknesses, Justin wasn't very happy at first but then he realized that it was only fair to play by the right rules. After we cleaned up the board games we went upstairs where we played a game that focused on accuracy and control of a soccer ball. We set up targets all around the gym, the targets were all components of what goes into a thanksgiving dinner. Once a pair hit a target they then acquired food. The teams that hit a food item then told one of us and we put it on the table for it to be eaten. The kids liked the game a lot it involved everyone at all times and it got everyone in the mood for thanksgiving dinner which was right around the corner.

Friday, November 6, 2009

St Mary's presents the Big Top Circus

Get your popcorn ready because the circus was in town at St. Mary's school. The circus mainly consisted of clowns and the parachute games but overall the children had a great time. A good majority of the class dressed up and acted the part, which was of coarse circus circus. There are so many advantages when you act out the theme, it engages the young students so much more they are intrigued and want to know if that your real hair or if you really wear these funny clothes. Its a great way to get the children comfortable and ready to have fun. Even though the older kids may not seem that interested in you but they are; there probably laughing at you which isn't a bad thing it's just another way to engage the student even if its at your own expense. In the activities of the day we worked on the overhand thrown and the catch and all of the proper techniques that go along with them. My group paired up with the Gym rats and observed the children these were the kindergartners and the 1st graders. There development of the manipulation of the round objects were in the elementary stage but the throwing and catching of the spheres were not as developed. Throws were very erratic and uncontrolled. At this age it is best for children to develop the proper techniques and then the accuracy and finesse will follow over time.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Harvest Fest at St. Marys


The third lab of our St. Mary's experience brought us into the end of October, this was the perfect time for a fall harvest festival, this was the theme of the day. We continued our observations of the children's locomotor skills development in their play and interactions in the gym and in the play ground. This week Activities R' Us were assigned to the pre-k children, I was assigned to come help with the Pre-k in the morning last tuesday. I was amazed how many of the children remembered me, my buddy paul who I must of read 5 books to came and found me as soon as he saw me, he couldn't wait to start playing with me and the other college kids. The pre-k student's are very self sufficient in terms of keeping themselves entertained this is due to their elaborate imaginations. In order to interact with the children you must delve into the imaginary world that they are playing in, such as that the wood chips are lava and you cannot step on them. These kids get so excited when you play the same games that they play, they are amazed that an older person would want to play the same games as them. When we brought the kids inside we set up a Harvest collection the children had to perform the locomotor skills in order to acquire the harvest items. We also added a tunnel for some reason the Pre-k children love going through the fabric tunnel. Next week we have been assigned to organizing one of the equipment rooms, this should be fun and a chance to see how to inquire all the items of the PE department.

Monday, October 26, 2009

PE Hall of shame



As physical education has progressed so have the activities and games that are played in phys ed. class. Today's PE classes are taught in teaching the student as a wholeperson mind, body, spirit. these are the components that make up a educated person. Over the coarse of the development of Physical education certain games have earned a spot on the PE hall of shame. As you would guess dodge ball would be on top of most list. This is because in past PE teacher's have just rolled out 8 ounce rubber kick balls and said go nuts. In about 98% of the time in playing dodge ball some will most likely be injured of some kind of way. Or this can lead to bullying or ganging up on a less skilled player. If dodge ball is being played this way then I also think it belongs on the wall of shame, but if dodge ball is played correctly then it can be used to teach many aspects of physical education. With this being said variations need to be implemented to the old form of dodge ball, such as every player needs to throw with their non dominant hand. Another variation could be that the ball has to bounce the ball before it can strike someone. A very fun and interactive variation is to make a court half the players are inside the court and the other half are outside this court. The players on the outside receive mush balls and have to throw them at the players in the middle but the ball must bounce first. Once hit the person who threw the mush ball goes in and the person who got hit is now outside throwing. This variation keeps everyone involved at all times and keeps the traditionally chaotic game under control. With all the the variations that I have just mentioned students are still able to use there motor moments and develop their hand eye coordination. Before you play any form of dodge ball a class must prove to you that they are responsible and mature enough to participate in the activity. The first intance that a student shows that they are not responsible or mature enough ask them to sit aside while the students who can handle it play. The general age that students are usually ready for a game such as dodge ball is about middle school and high school. In closing I do agree that traditional dodge ball belongs in the PE hall of shame but I think with the right guidance and supervison this can be a great learning experience.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Super hero's swoop into action at St. Mary's


There were superman's to batman's and everyone in between, The kids of St. Mary's said "you college kids are too early for Halloween" Once they realized that we were just dressing up for fun, the kids embraced it and began engaging in conversation and sharing stories about there favorite super hero's. This was a great way to get the kids involved and interested in the day, prior to even picking up a ball or playing a game. In the days activities we were able to view the childrens progression of gross motor movements such as running, galloping and hopping. Activities R' Us incorporated running and galloping in our modified super hero tag game. A variation of the game was to lock elbows with a partner, now you and your partner had to work in unison to avoid getting tagged. Once tagged you were frozen in a flying position, balancing on one foot while your arms are straight out as if you were flying. To get back in the game some one who was untagged could bring you back by touching you on your foot and two arm's. The kids really enjoyed this game we played for a good 20 minutes wit the variations. The way the kids interact with you when you connect with them on there level is remarkable, for instance I hadn't spoken to this one particular boy yet but I noticed him looking at me continuously from the second he saw me. I went over and introduced my self his response was, "Daffney is my favorite" turns out Scoopy-Doo is his favorite show, and i had worn a Scooby-Doo shirt with all the mystery team on it. From then on Me and Micheal played together the rest of the day, he was talking to me as if we had been friends for ever, on the sole fact that i had his show on my T-shirt. Find ways to relate the children on their own personal level. This will develop stronger relationship between the teacher and the student, which in the end the student will benefit most!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

1st Lab at St.mary's

On Monday we had our first lab for Ped 201. The kids had a great time with all of us "college kids". The theme of the day was stability, we observed how the children and there gross and fine motor skills were developing. My group ACTIVITIES R' US designed a game called endless bucket. we incorporated task that dealt with stability. Some of the exercises that we put in the bucket were hop to the next bucket, leadp frog, balance a bean bag on your head, balance on one foot for as long as you can, and some other exercises that had stability involved in it. As soon as the kids got into the game they were having a blast. Even the kids who were a little hesitant about play had a awesome time, and had forgotten that they were thinking about not participating. Overall the students of St Mary's had a great day and i think the SUNY Cortland student had a better time, everyone seems to enjoy interacting with these kids!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Mandatory Phys Ed.......how many states is phys ed state mandated

Believe it or not only 2 states in America have physical education programs that are mandatory for K-12. Just about half the U.S state education departments do not require students to take physical education courses. OBESITY ANYONE