Field Experience 4/27/2012

Last day!

Today was our last day of field experience, and again the girls were playing indoor soccer. Our teacher went over our evaluations and then talked with us individually about what she would like us to improve on.

My teacher said that I was a very strong teacher. She said although we had limited teaching ability I was still able to develop a relationship with the students and was able to take command of a classroom. She said that my objectives in my lesson planning have improved tremendously and that I take criticism and turn around and improve upon right then. She said my classroom management still needed some work, which I completely agree with but she said that will come with practice.

On our last day she let us completely take over. We separated the girls into 3 teams and each picked a team to coach. The class went really well we were both very vocally and we had the girls attention. We did have one special needs student in our class that needed a little bit more encouragement but after a while she felt more comfortable with the game and got really into it.

Over-all this experience has been...interesting. With vacations, a late start, and state testing it was very hard to do everything we wanted to. Our master teacher felt horrible that we were not able to teach and that we were only able to turn in two lesson plans. She said that other semesters that get in four lesson plans and there is no problem with them teaching, doing their assessments, anything. I feel that maybe 355 students should not be placed with 6th graders in the Spring because of all their state testing. Other then that I had a great experience and my master teacher honestly taught me so much that I will always remember and I will use when I have a classroom of my own.

Field Experience 4/24/2012

Today we were back at our home school and our master teacher was back. The girls again were playing indoor soccer and our teacher told us that we were to ref the game. She had us take turns in being the ref and gave us constructive criticism after each turn.

When my turn came I was kind of quiet. I thought I was doing an okay job I was mostly just letting the girls play and calling our reminders here and there. The girls understood the rules and the game so I feel like i did not have to do much. However, after both our turns are teacher took back over and showed us what we should be doing. She run up and down the gym with the girls and was always talking saying good job good pass good kick, good save. She was also more persistent with the girls who were not trying as much as the other girls by constantly running next to them or saying like remember this is a running game if they stopped moving.

When my turn came again, I stepped it up a lot more. I was more vocal and spent a lot of time running with the girls. My teacher said that she likes how I take criticism and then instantly get better. She said the thing that I have to work on the most was my voice, which she said would develop over the years. She said that eventually I won't have to yell to be heard but I my voice will deepen a little bit and I can just project more. My teacher also liked that I worked well with students one on one. Instead of just yelling out directions, I would go up to individual students and show them exactly what I wanted them to do.

Field Experience 4/20/12

Our third teaching round of the day. This time we were back at Cortland Christian Academy and we were teaching and post-assessing the 2nd and 3rd graders in balancing.

Today walking in went a lot more smoother then last time. We were definitely more prepared to teach and as soon as they kids saw us walking in with hula-hoops, jump ropes, and a poster they got really excited. It really solidifies the fact that I want to work with elementary students.

Our lesson went really really well. We played a game called dragons and princesses for our instant activity and the kids loved it. They got really into the game and they got to work on balancing. It is so much easier to teach students how to do a skill when you can incorporate it into a game instead of just saying "here, lets practice balancing!". The kids don't get bored, and they most likely do not even realize that they are being taught something.

When we got to our main lesson, it was kind of hard to get them to settle down. I kept having to say hands on your head to get them to quiet down. Looking back on it I would have sat down and told them once that I cannot teach them about the game if they keep talking over me. Especially when I brought out my poster, which had the balancing cues on it. My main cue was to refer to balancing as the Flamingo, and the kids really loved it, but they got a little too excited. Classroom management is something that comes with practice and this was just another learning experience. I also did not realize the time constraint that we were under. We originally planned on having the kids play an instant activity, the main game, and then a small tag game where when they were tagged they had to freeze and assume the "Flamingo!" and we would post-assess them that way. Since we did not have time, we post-assessed them in the main game.

Assessing went so much better then it did when we pre-assessed. The students were playing and have a great time and did not even realize they were being assessed, which is want NASPE wants us to do. Over-all teaching this class was probably the highlight of my EDU 355 experience. I loved working with the younger kids and it just made me want to teach elementary students even more.

Field Experience 4/20/12

Our second class of the day was back to our normal class. Our master teacher was out this week on her vacation so we had sub that actually is going to Cortland right now. She let us take over the class from the beginning. We went over the rules, which lane could and could not go into. We also set up rotations for goalie so there was no arguing when the time came to switch. Since this was a bigger class we split the girls up into 3 teams and had them play four minute games so that way they all played the same number of games.

The only thing I would really do differently looking back is say something more to one of the students who was not participating as well as the others. Not necessarily negative things but maybe cheer her on more and when she did something correct be overly encouraging to get her going before taking her aside and asking what is wrong.

Field Experience 4/20/12

Today we did double at Homer. The first class we were with the guys host teacher and the kids were playing indoor soccer still. The class we were observing was not our usual class and it was extremely small and it was only a class of girls.

However, I felt that the game was better played with a group of smaller girls. They all got to play the entire time and did not have to keep switching back and forth which is our ultimate aim as physical education teachers. However, the teaching style was completely different. Instead of going through the rules and how to actually play offense and defense before the game, the teacher let the game start and then kept throwing out directions while they were playing. While this is a good idea since it keeps reminding them of they are suppose to be doing, I feel that the rules should have been reviewed before the girls started playing.

It was good to see the students really getting into it though and they did keep moving. There were no students that we had to talk to to keep moving or to play they all were participating and having a great time.

Field Experience 4/17/2012

Today we were teaching at the Cortland Christian Academy doing our per-assessing of our skill theme balancing.  Instead of our usual 6th grade class we were teaching 2nd and 3rd graders. It was a little weird going to a different school. At Homer we are really comfortable there, we know exactly where to go how to get there we talk to the secretary in the office all the time. Going to a different school is definitely confusing. We got lost getting there and then we didn't know how to actually get into the school.

I have heard of schools that use regular classroom teachers to teach physical education, but hearing about it and seeing it are two completely different things. I feel that the 355 students who got to go to this school got a really great experience. Although it was probably a lot of work being expected to teach every single time they went, they really got a huge experience teaching and I have to admit I am a little jealous.

I feel that our pre-assessing went okay. We definitely could have done a lot better. We should have communicated better with the two girls that were teaching that day instead of just assuming that they were doing stations. As a teacher I feel that you need to plan for everything, including taking charge even if you may not be in charge of that lesson. I also feel that we should have planned how we were doing our assessing better. NASPE says that when assessing elementary students to use stations and to make it so that students do not realize they are being assessed. We did the complete opposite. We pulled the students out of their soccer game one by one and assessed them that way, and when that was not working we had the students do it all together which was actually extremely hard.

All in all, not our finest moment. Then again if every teacher was perfect we wouldn't have to go through all this experience. Lesson learned for the next assessment!

Field Experience 4/3/2012

Today's lesson we were suppose to do our skill theme with our class. We had picked jump roping and we were going to teach them how to cross the rope while jumping and assess them on how many times out of ten they could successfully cross the rope.

From the beginning there seemed to be a conflict with trying to fit our lesson in. With all the vacations going on and testing, we were crammed for time so we were doing the per-assessment, teaching, and post-assessment all in the same day. However, I was under the impression that although we would not be teaching and/or assessing the whole class, we would at least have a small group of girls that we would be teaching while the rest of the class played indoor soccer. This was not the case. We were per-assessing, teaching, and  post-assessing all in a matter of five minutes.

When I heard that this is what we were going to be doing. I was a little shocked since we are suppose to be actually teaching not just observing and I felt that is all we had been doing. This also showed me how much communication is important because if we had known the time constraints and the that we were not going to have the whole class to teach a skill we could have picked a more simple skill or maybe tried to figure a better plan to fit in where we could actually teach.

The rest of the class the students were playing indoor soccer. I like how our master teacher actually went through and explained the rules and how to play. She also worked in a ton of check for understandings to make sure the students 100% knew what they were doing. It was not just a simply roll out the ball and play indoor soccer, it was a legit game of soccer.

Field Experience 4/20/12

The fourth and last class of the day.

In this class we were assessing fourth and fifth graders on dribbling. We were assessing them on whether or not they learned the cues (cognitive) and how well they worked together in class (affective).

We again, took what we learned from our pre-assessing mistakes and learned from them when doing this assessments. This time, since the students were a little bit older, we set up stations for them to complete. One stations the students had to practice dribbling around cones, and then we had them dribble into the cones in order to knock them over to help test their ability to control the ball. The third stations was the station I was manning, and this was the cognitive assessment station. I had cue cards that had the correct dribbling cues on them, mixed in with cue cards that were wrong. I had two of each and I had two students go at once and race against each other to see who could complete the assessment first. Most of the students got it the first time around, although there were a couple that I had to keep saying look again! After the kids had gotten the answer correct I gave them back their basketball and let them play dribble knock out.  The third station was the affective assessment station. Here the kids played kind of a tag game while dribbling, and at the end they had to fill out the smiley face sheet. If they did really well they circled a big smile for the question, a neutral face if they did okay and a sad face if they thought they did bad. The students were surprisingly honest. There was not one paper they had a full smiley face circled for every question.

I felt that the lesson went really smooth. The only big issue we ran into was that we were told that half the students would be leaving so we kind of rushed through everything so that all the students had a chance to go through all the stations and be assessed. In the end, only two students left early and the rest left maybe five minutes before class ended. If we ran into something like this again, we would ask which students typically leave first and have them do the assessment stations first so if worse came to worse they would miss out on the one station that was not an assessment station. 

Field Experience 3/30/2012

The lesson that was conducted today, not only had students learn to work together in teams, but it also tied in their English classes into the p.e. The students were put into two groups, and were told to work together to figure out which two students would do which station. One group had a bit of an issue doing this, a student in one of the groups our master teacher informed us gets nervous and starts crying and forgets what he's suppose to be doing. To work around this, the students tried to just tell the student what he was going to be doing instead of asking the student what he would like to do. This was not wrong of the students, but they are too young to have any experience with dealing with this.

After the groups were formed and the students knew which stations they were going to perform our master teacher handed them a card with a werbble (worrble?) on it that the students had to solve in order to move on to the next skill. This mixed English class with Physical Education and also worked the cognitive domain into the lesson by having the students need to think about what the worrbles meant.

We did have a bit of an issue with another student. Two seconds after our master teacher handed her the card she got the answer. This worrble was something that we did not even know, and our master teacher even said there was no way she knew the answer unless someone told her. This is a student that we have had trouble with all semester with not listening or not following rules. Our master teacher ended up taking the card away and giving the group a new card.

Field Experience 3/27/2012

Today in class we continued with project adventure and the trust falls. The master teachers had the students do a brief review of what they learned last class, and then they had them do trust falls off the bleachers and do levitation's in a group.

Our host teachers management style of this class was very organized. Both master teachers split the strongest kids in the class equally so they both had the same number in each falling group. The master teachers then stepped in and lined the students up. They put taller students towards the front, with the student teachers and stronger 6th graders in the middle with students being on the short side at the end. This allowed students to safety fall without the fear of being dropped. When it comes to trust falls, the teachers definitely need to have a more direct teaching style then they usually would since there is a huge safety concern when conducing this unit.

The next station was to do levitation in groups. The students had to work together in order to lift the student in the center. If one student went to fast or to slow it would feel like the student was being dropped. The student teachers were each assigned a group to keep an eye on with the master teachers walking around. I had an issue in my group of girls when one of the girls thought it would be funny to say let her fall let her fall. I had to stop the entire group and tell them that if I heard it again I would sit the whole group, since I couldn't figure out who has said it.

Field Experience 3/23/2012

The students  started trust falls today in class. Our master teacher was very adamant on the fact that if any student was caught fooling around, for example laughing, saying let them fall, or not following the cues, the student would be dismissed from this activity. I feel that although we are taught as physical educators to not have students sit out an entire class as a punishment, when you are doing a unit such as trust falls, it is a reasonable punishment since it compromises students safety.

Our master teachers had the students start out very basic. They had the students pair up in order of size, and height. The students started off very simple, with very slow, relaxed, paired trust falls. We, as the student teachers, had to walk around and correct students posters. There were a lot of students, especially girls, that were bending at the waist or knees which made it harder for their partner to catch them when they fell.

Once students were comfortable with this, they moved on to trust falls that involved three students. IT was the same concept yet students were falling forwards as well as backwards. Again, we were told to be on the look out for students misbehaving and for students that did not have the correct form. Students then moved onto circle trust falls.

I feel that although we did not teach in this lesson, I felt that we still had more control over the class because we had the ability to pull them out of the lesson if we heard them misbehaving. Also, we worked with the students who had trouble doing the trust falls without bending. I feel that this lesson also showed how I am getting to know the students more. I know more of their names and they actually call on me to ask questions instead of going straight to the master teacher.

Field Experience 3/20/2012

Today was the first day that I was allowed to teach in my class. In all honesty if that was thing I could change about all of this, it would be the fact that I feel that I am not allowed to teach.

Back to my lesson. My lesson today was Python Pentathlon. This was a complicated game where the kids had to put their arms on each others shoulders and wrap their legs around the person in front of them.  I feel that my lesson over all, really connect to the NYS Standards. My lesson had the psychomotor domain, (NYS Standard 1A/A) affective, (2A,5) and very cognitive heavy, (1A/2).

The psychomotor skills were demonstrated in the fact that students had to shift their weight front to back in order to get to their cone. Affect was demonstrated since they had to work together as one team in order to be successful. If one person was out of sink, the entire team was thrown off. It was very cognitive heavy since I allowed students to figure it out on their own, and also at the end of my lesson I asked them how else they could have successfully moved their line.

On another note, I feel that this lesson allowed me to see the improvement that I have made as a teacher. Looking back when I first started working with kids in 201, I was nervous when it came to actually disciplining students. I was very soft spoken and I let students get away with more then I should of. Now, however, I am very vocal. If I see a student breaking the rules I am more able to deal with it. I think that being a lab assistant for Dr. Davis has definitely lead to this improvement. For example, in today's lesson the students were very excited for my game (which I was very happy about :) ) and they kept talking. I simply stood there until they looked at me and I said I am not going to continue talking until all of you are listening, and you are only wasting your own time. My master teacher even complemented me on this, saying that a lot of students she has had in the past were too timid to say anything like that.



*I uploaded my lesson plan into goggle documents and have linked it into my blog.

Field Experience 3/16/2012

In today's lesson, the kids had a small "break" between pickle-ball and the start of the project adventure unit that the class would be starting next week. In today's lesson, the students were separated into two groups, the boys were with us and our master teacher, and the girls were with the other master teacher. The boys were doing yoga/stress management while the girls were doing self-defense.

Today's blog is going to focus on my reflection of the lesson. The first part of the lesson our master teacher had the boys play cross fire, which is just another version of dodge-ball. At first I was thinking, we should never play this game in a physical education class, but then she informed us that since they were doing stress management and yoga, she let them play a game that she knew they never get to play in class in order to make a compromise with them to behave. She also informed us that this was the only time she has allowed a class play this game. At first I kind of thought she was bribing her students, but the more I think about it, it is a smart idea. Yoga and stress management is all about relaxation, and lowering your energy levels. By allowing the boys to exercise their energy out of them before doing this exercise, our host teacher was making it so she had better control of the classroom.

Our host teacher did an excellent job of opening up the lesson on yoga. She went through and explained what stress was and gave examples of how different people deal with it. I expected the boys to still have to much energy, but surprisingly though the exercise I only had to remind them once to be quiet and pay attention. Most of the boys got into the relaxation and a couple of them had actually fell asleep.

Field Experience 3/13/2012 Classroom Observations

After working with our master teacher, we did our one hour of classroom observation. The classroom that we observed was a home and careers class, and they were reviewing words for their ELA exams and then they were sewing puppets.

I like how the classroom was arranged. Instead of having all the chairs in rows and all lined up, the teacher had the desks set up in a square, so that way the teacher can walk directly in front of the students and be in front of all the students, all the time. This helps defend against behavioral problems or attention problems that happen in a classroom. The students however, we were separated in the classroom then they are in the gymnasium. In the gymnasium that have to interact with the entire class, however in the classroom, students sat by themselves or they grouped together with friends. The boys were separate from the girls too which was kind of funny. However, the over all atmosphere of the classroom was relaxed, students did not seem to be judging each other in anyway. Students were allowed to sit where they wanted and one student was even eating and our teacher said that they were allowed to eat as long as it didn't disrupt other students and as long as it didn't distract them from what they were suppose to be learning.

The students were preparing for the ELA exam in the beginning of the class, and the level of these students seemed pretty high. I am not a 100% sure what words are normal for this age group, but they understood all the words the teacher through at them and when they were reading they all read and at what seemed to me a level that was beyond 6th grade.

I think that by observing the classroom and seeing how girls separate themselves and how the boys separate themselves can help my teach by trying to knock down those barriers. 6th grade is typically when "mean girls" start so as a teacher I feel that I would pay attention to who those girls seem to be and try and separate them in class to try and deter that kind of separate behavior. When it comes to separate boys and girls, in my gymnasium I would mix them as much as possible.

Field Experience-3/13/2012

Today we are on our last day of pickle-ball and the students were continuing with the tournament play. We had our spring break the week before so it has been a while since we have worked with the students, and this was a different 6th grade class then the one we worked with before break. This class had a special needs student in it, and this is a student with autism. This students autism is not severe from what I have observed. The student is very active and is fully able to play the game, he just has a harder time understanding the skill and how to make the skill worked to his advantage. The student also gets very frustrated, at least when I worked with him he did, when I was trying to explain the game to him. I feel that it was because he was trying to communicate the way he understood it, but he could not find the words.

I felt that the students who were on the court with this student were very patient with him considering the age group of these students. However, I felt that the two more developed students I had on my court with me could have done a better job. When the student with autism was on my court the two students ignored him and just played between themselves and the third student that was on the court. The one student would cut in front of him to get the ball and only let him serve when I told him that he had to take turns serving. 

Field Experience Day Five-3/2/2012

In class today we began to have tournaments in pickle-ball. I like the way that our master teacher set up the classroom, by having it so that the boys continue to move courts instead of the girls. This way, everyone gets a new partner every round and a new team to play. It was also good for us as teachers since we each got to meet more students in the class, and we got to see a wide variety of skills. For example, in other classes we were working with the same four students the entire class. You were also only able to assist those four students so if you had students that were on the lower end of the skill level, you only saw that level. This allowed use to observe a classroom as it might really be set up, where students of different skill levels played together.

This lesson I also felt that I communicated with the students and our master teacher more. I felt that communication with the students was, difficult. I had two girls on my court that were friends, and one had a higher skill level then the other and the student with the lower skill level was trying to keep up with her friend and was starting to get frustrated that she couldn't. I took her aside and showed her the proper way to hit the ball instead of trying to kill it, and when she saw that she was more successful this way, she was happier. However, her friend was more difficult. I had to tell her numerous times to stop killing the ball because she was hitting it so hard that students on the other-side of the net could not volley the ball, which was the entire point of the exercise.. She did not listen to me at all, and eventually I had to ask my master teacher if it was okay if I took her out of the game until she decided to listen. My master teacher supported me whole heartily because she had observed that I was having difficult with this student but wanted to see how I dealt with it. My teacher communicated to me afterwards, along with the other master teacher in the gymnasium, that they often have trouble with her misbehaving and not listening to teachers.

Field Experience Day Four-2/28/2012

Today we continued with pickle-ball but we had a different class then before the students went on break.I had a different group of students and this group was a group I had seen before. The focus of this blog post is the assessment of student learning.

When I first saw this group of students, they had middle of the road skills when it came to serving, and volleying the ball. However, today the students had improved their skills by a tremendous amount. They understood that they cannot hit the ball as hard as they could and expect the ball to just go over, they actually had to hit the ball at the correct angle. Also the students seemed to be more interested in actually playing the game instead of beating the other team which is what we were aiming for the entire time. Although I did not verbally assess the students to see if they have an understanding of angles, I could visually see that the students had learned.

Parachute Fitness and Yoga

1. Find information on the history of the parachute and how a parachute works.
  • Parachutes work by creating air drag. They use air to slow a person down to a safe speed. The history of a parachute is very long with a lot of people making their own tweaks through out the years. Da Vinci sketched his idea of parachute in 1495. Almost two hundred years later Veranzio made a device that used Da Vinci's sketch as a starting point and used it to jump off the tower of Venice. 
2. Create a parachute routine composed of various parachute activities learned in class.
  • I would first start by having students creative ripples, waves, storm to imitate the way the sea moves. From here I would ask students what happens to the water in the sea? I would explain how water is soaked up by clouds and have the students make a cloud. Then I would ask what comes from clouds? Students can answer with rain, snow, sleet, etc. I would then ask what happens what you get caught under a cloud? At this point I would have them make a could and step under and pretend that they are being rained or snowed on. 
3. Practice the yoga routine for a week and keep a journal of how you feel.
  • I'm not really a fan of yoga. I know that it is used to relax and relive stress, but I rather going running to relax and relive stress. I get bored easily and sitting around stretching does not sound fun to me.
4. Use stick figures to diagram each pose in the Salute to the Sun yoga routine.

Improving Teaching

1. Reflect upon your lab teaching experience. Describe your teaching strengths and weaknesses for teaching in this lab.
  • My strength in this lab was my lead in. It made the lesson interesting and relate able to the students. Although we learned in 255 that we do not always need a hook for a lesson, when teaching younger students it is better to have one because it makes them more interested. My weakness in this lab was teaching a small group. The lesson plan that I designed would have been more affective for an entire class and not just two students and I had a hard time adapting to that. 
2.Identify one of your most effective teachers. What teaching behaviors did you admire in the way he/she taught?
  • My most effective teacher was my 10th grade english teacher. She just made class fun and entertaining and not boring. We had to read Shakespeare as part of the curriculum, and after every scene she has us act it out as it would happen in today's society. It made you learn and understand the material better, and it was also a ton of fun. This is what I aim to do when I write my hook's and my lesson plans. 
3. What goals will you set for yourself as you prepare to teach in the Education 300 Field Experience?
  • My main goal is to make my students have fun while they are learning. You have can have the best lesson in the world,filled with information and relative material, but if it's boring and dry, students are not going to remember it very well and they are not going to want to learn it. Also, one of my goals is to not be afraid to be firm with students. Being a lab assistant has definitely made me improve in that area since the mentors themselves are to timid to tell children to stop mis-behaving, but I am not consistent with it and I would like to improve upon that. 

Field Experience Day Three

Today in field experience was the first real day that we got to work with the kids and really started learning their names. The students were again continuing with the hand-eye coordination stations, but we saw a different class today instead of the other class we had worked with the last two days.

The area of reflection today is students with special needs. In the other class we originally worked with, the skill level around the class was pretty even. There were some stand-outs whether they stood out as being really good, or needing work, but over-all the skills were on the same page. This class was different. The skill ranges were incredible. There were some students that played pickle ball extremely, there were some middle of the road students, and then were students who struggled to serve the ball correctly. I was working on a court where there were students who were lower skilled. One of the students was really far behind the other students and I worked with him the most. I inadvertently brought science into the lesson by talking to him about how angles work, so he would see that he was hitting the ball at too high of an angle.

I did not have the students pay attention to the rules of the game of pickle ball, the only rule I made sure they followed was the switching of the servers so that every student got a turn practicing the serve and I made sure they stayed in the boundaries. After my master teacher took aside the student I was originally working with I worked with another student who had trouble with returning the ball. The student seemed more content to serve the ball and let his partner hit it back and I had to explain to him that was not how it worked. He had good form he just had the problem of hitting it to far so that the ball did not land in bounds, so I worked with him on hitting the ball more lightly and just trying to get in bounds, and not worry about over bearing his opponents.

Carpet Sample Fitness

1.What signs could students use to replace the traditional signs used in Rock, Paper, Scissors?
  • This would be an excellent time to maybe tie in teaching students sign language. Instead of using the typical fist, open head, and "peace" sign to represent rock, paper, scissors, you could use the sign for r, p, and s. When students become more advanced then you could move on to the actual signs for rock, paper, and scissors. 

2. Design three new carpet sample fitness activities for your students.
  • Magic Carpet Ride-students have to sit on the carpet and use the inch worm technique to get the carpet to move around obstacles. 
  • Lava Flow!-carpet samples are spread around the gym floor and students have to move around by moving from carpet to carpet. Students can leap, jump, skip, etc. in order to move. 
  • Flying Carpet Relay Races-students have to move from one end of the gym to the other only using the carpets. In order to move to the next carpet they have to do the fitness component that is assigned to that carpet. 
3. How would you assess student understand of the friction principles?
  • I would assess them by having them take turns explaining the principles to each other. At the end of the unit, I would have them take a small quiz asking about the principles. 
4. Explain how muscular strength and cardiovascular endurance are important aspects of this lesson.
  • In this lesson we worked on ab muscles, and leg muscles, and also added in running. They were important because they are things that you need to work on with students but this lesson should the proper way to do. You shouldn't make your students run laps, and do sit ups and push ups to work on muscular strength and cardiovascular endurance, you need to incorporate them in your lessons so that students do not concentrate on the fact that they are working on these things. 
5. Conduct a search on the internet to gain bird fact information. What is our state bird? What is the smallest bird? What is the largest bird? What is unique about bird anatomy that enables them to fly? Add interesting information that you find through your search.
  • Our state bird is the Easter Bluebird. The smallest bird in the world is the Bee Hummingbird, which is no bigger then a bee and only a high speed camera can capture this bird. Bird's anatomy make it so that instead of arms they have wings, and the bones in their wings are like our cartilage, very light and hollow. 

Field Experience-Day Two

Today was our second day of field experience where we actually got to meet our host teacher. She was very nice and vverrryy organized which I love since it helps keep me on track. We went through the schedule for her classes and when she expects us to teach. She also went through a different way to write objectives, which I think her way of writing them is easier to assess. She says that instead of writing: In today's lesson, students will be able to successfully bump the volleyball successfully 7 out of 10 times over the net, we should say: In today's lesson, students will demonstrate correct technique when bumping by staying low, forming a platform with arms, having hands together, and lifting with legs. The reason I side with her way of writing objectives is because it's easier to assess them, and it gives the students a detailed description of what you are actually looking for.

On to the lesson. Today they were continuing with the hand-eye coordination stations and I worked with the students who were playing pickle ball. The first thing I noticed with the students that I was working with, is that when they picked sides, the partner that they picked went across from them. So they ended up playing AGAINST their partner, which I found interesting. When we got into the class lesson, I began to see why. Kids tend to pick partners based on who they are friends with, and a lot of times, who they know can play the game. This way, if you were playing on the same court as a weaker team, there ended up being one weaker player and one stronger player on each team. Which is exactly what we want to do when teaching skills in physical education.

I got more involved with the students than I did the first day. I helped explained to them why the ball was going so high when they hit it instead of straight so I got to demonstrate my knowledge of racquet ball activities which was pretty cool. I also got to practice with intertwining cognitive assessments in the lesson but periodically asking what the score was, to make sure they were actually keeping score, and asking them to tell me the rules. I felt that I was actually teaching the students instead of just standing there observing them for once.

Lab 8 Hula Hoops

1. Explain three important benefits of hoop play.
  • Hula-hoop activities can aid the development of hand-eye coordination, foot-eye coordination, and body awareness.
2. Give an example of how hoops can be used to reinforce a cognitive concept linked with classroom learning.
  • When students are younger they might have trouble learning a clock, so you could make a hula hoop a clock and have students point to different times. You can also do what we did in lab and incorporate a physical component such as jump to 12 o'clock, leap to two o'clock, etc. Also, you could turn it into a stretching component  by having the students arms and legs the minute and hour hands and give them a time and have them move their body to that time. 
3. Describe how hoops can be utilized to promote growth in the affective domain.
  • The activity we did in class shows how hula-hoops can utilized to promote the affective domain. The activity where we were given when we were given a skill and then a colored hula hoop to fit into where with other people is affective. You had to work with other students in order to fit inside the hula hoop. The activity at the end of the lab was also heavy in the affective domain. Students had to cooperate with each other in order to avoid bumping into each other to get to the other side of the hula hoops. 
4.  Utilize the internet to gather information about ponds and related ecology to use in your field experience teaching or future teaching.
  • You could pretend the hula hoops are lily pads and that the general space around them is the pond and that you cannot go into the pond or else you can drown. You can also switch it around and have the hula hoops be the pond and the general space be the forest and you have to jump over the ponds because if you fall in you can drown. The general space can shrink until it is most pond water which keeps the kids moving. 
Make a chart of Mosston's Teaching Styles and keep a record of how many of the styles you use in your teaching.
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EDU 355 Field Experience-February 10th-First Day!

Today was my first day of field experience at Homer Jr. High where I will be observing 6th graders. I was a littler nervous when walking in, which is to be expected since I did not know what was going to happen or what my host teachers would be like, anything. However, once I was there I settled in.

The first day was pretty laid back. The students came up and said hi and it was definitely weird introducing myself as Ms. Turner. The students seemed excited to be there and all of them were dressed and ready to go. My host teacher was absent that day so I did not get to meet her but the guys host teacher talked to us about what what our master teacher would expect of us, and what they were doing in class. He said that they were currently in a dance unit, but since dance was not a favorite subject they were breaking it up with different activities so that the children did not become disinterested.

The students were having a co-ed class today, and they were split up by colored groups, which I thought was a creative way of breaking down a class, instead of using the typical squads. It also lead to easier classroom management since handling three separate groups instead of one huge class is a lot easier to handle. The teacher then assigned each group to a station. This was also a great example of classroom management since in other classrooms I have been in, teachers say okay which group wants to go here? Then the class erupts into arguments about who should go where. By telling the students where to go, the teacher saves a lot of time and effort. The students also stayed at that station the entire class, which gave them a change to have actually play the game. The stations were ladder ball, table tennis/foozeball, and pickle ball. All these games take time, and if they students were rotating the entire time, they would lose out on playing a real game, and really learning the game.

The master teacher said that the next class we would be seeing is completely different then the class we went to today. He said that this class (the class we went to today) had really good behavior, that they rarely acted up and really enjoyed the class. He said the next class there are some special need students and behavioral students that need watching.

Jump Roping

Can a child in a wheelchair enter the front door and the back door? What modifications would you make?
  • This would be a very difficult task for a student in a wheelchair to accomplish.When entering the front/back door the rope is at a very low point and they student may not have time to get out of the rope before it comes down, especially if they are a younger student and do not have a lot of speed with the wheelchair. To modify this so the student does not feel left out, have the student enter the jump rope from the center.This way the rope is higher up when the student enters and it will give them more time to get out before the rope comes down. 
How would you apple a goal setting to this lesson?
  • You could have the students set themselves a goal such as I can move the jump ropes this far apart and jump them and make it to the other side say 7 out of 10 times. The student this way is setting a personal goal but is also practicing the basic motor movement of jumping.  Having a goal set this way also means that they do not have to be perfect. They can miss the jump three times and still make their goal. 
Design a long rope jumping routing for a pair of students jumping at the same time.
  • In this class, I would pair students up based on the timing (i.e. I would place a student who's timing is off with a student who can time the jump correctly) and have them hold hands while trying to jump into the rope. This way the student who has good timing have help the other student get their sense of timing down. At first I would have them let go of each others hands once they were in so that they can jump at their own pace, but as they get more comfortable I would have them keep holding hands and jump together. I would then let the students come up with their own routines so that the cognitive domain is active in the class.
Create a checklist of critical elements to look for and use in teaching basic, two foot rope jumping.
  • The student lands on both feet.
  • The rope is hitting the ground when it is being swung down
  • The student isn't touching the rope with another body part while jumping
  • Arms are extended
Describe how you would go about organizing a rope jumping club for your elementary school.
  • First, I would make sure that I have students who are interested in participating in such a club, since forming a club where students are not interested would not be beneficial. I would make sure that the students understand that it is open to any grade, and any student who is interested in practicing their jump roping, or even learning on how to jump rope if they haven't yet. Then I would go to the principal/board of education and get permission in order to form the club.  I would send a letter home with every student so that parents understand what is being done, such as what safety measures are being taken, where the club is taking place and when. I would keep the parents involve by having Parent Nights, where they can come jump rope with their kids so it keeps parents active too. 
Stimulus Variation
  • Stimulus variation is when the teacher changes the way a lesson is presented, and changes the way that they teach the lesson in order to keep the kids interested. 

Ball Handling Skills

Use the internet to search for information about turtles and how they live.
    Turtles live almost everywhere in the planet,  minus the Arctic and Antarctic. Turtles cannot take off their shells, ever, since they are used for protection but they can hear, and they do have ears. However it is the outer ear that humans have, but the inner ear that most animals possess. Turtles can live for an extremely long time. There is one kind of turtle that can live for over 200 years. Turtles can also survive on land and water, and they do take care of their young. They lay their eggs and walk away.

Identify the fitness components being addressed  in squad square fitness. Where are these components located on the New York State Conceptual Framework for K-12 Physical Education?
  The squads worked on step-ups, ski jumps, and hand walks. They worked on agility during step-ups, and almost cardiovascular endurance for all of them since every physical component included getting your heart rate up. Although there is no specific spot for agility on the New York State framework, cardiovascular endurance is found under health related fitness.



Prescribe series of ball handling skills for second grade boy or girl that is afraid of catching a ball. What kind of objects might you prescribe for throwing and catching.
    I would start with completely taking the ball away. Since most balls are hard, and even the softee versions of balls are not that soft. I would start with using a foam ball, or even a bean bag like we did depending on the comfort level of the student. I first spend time having the student throw the ball to themselves just about head level. In my coaching experience I have found that most kids fear of the ball is because someone else is throwing it and they are scared to get hit. I would increase the height of the ball depending on the students comfort level. This can be modified using many objects such as a balloon, a softee ball, a plastic play ball, all depending on their comfort level. Eventually I would work up to tossing the ball to them from a kneeling position to see if they are more comfortable.

What are some of the guidelines you would follow in pairing students for throwing and catching?
   This one is tricky because usually you don't want to pair a lower skill student with a lower skill student, but in the case of throwing and catching I believe that you should at least start off this way, just to introduce the skill and the uncomfortable feeling that is first associated with having something thrown at your face. However, as the students get better I would split them and put them with students with lower skilled students, just so they lower skilled students could get used to seeing the proper technique of throwing and catching. I would monitor them to make sure the higher skill students are not over powering the other student. Also, this makes sure that the lower skilled students are not being left behind and will not learn to hate throwing and catching.

How would you help a special needs student learn to catch that displays delayed motor control and lack of fine motor control dexterity?
     I would work with them on doing the "alligator". By this I mean that the student practices catching the ball with two hands, but without the ball. This work on his fine motor skills with his hands and still relates to the skill so they won't feel out. When I introduce a ball, I will say the alligator wants to get the ball in his mouth and I will practice, without throwing the ball yet, his timing to catch the alligators food. After they have this done, I will start actually throwing the ball, slowly so that it arcs. Progressing to faster throws, and eventually throwing a full fledged ball. This is a cue that the student will remember for the rest of their lives, so even after they can full catch a ball they will still use the alligator to remind them to watch with two hands.

Lab Three-Low Organized Games

Select one of the locomotor skills and create your own set of teaching cues.
       I would teach running. I would teach the kids that there is a time when both feet are in the air and that your arms help you run faster. My cues would include kick your butt, soft feet, and swing your arms in opposition. '

Identify the specific pathways used in each of the low organized games presented in the lesson focus.
   The three specific pathways that we used in class was a straight pathway, a zig-zag pathway, and a curved pathway. 

Select a topic for a class talk and outline the questions and key points that would help you guide a class talk.
   My topic would be eating healthy. Some of my questions would include what is your favorite foods? Do you eat breakfast? Do you know the basic food groups? Which food group do you eat the most? Which food group SHOULD you eat the most? My key points would include that in order to eat healthy you need to eat breakfast, and stress that it is the most important mean of the day since a lot of students skip it. I would also have a poster that has the food pyramid on it and talk about which group you should eat the most of it and which group you should stay away from. I would also let the kids come up with creative ways to make their favorite foods more healthy.

Made a checklist of performance points to look in one of the locomotor movements.
Jump:   take off with both feet
land on both feet
use your arms to propel your forward
bend your knees at take and landing

Lab Two-Movement Activities

Explain why exercises such as sit ups and push-ups have to be modified for kindergarten and first grade students in the DVL 1 group.
    Younger kids do not know how to do a proper sit-up or push-up. They are not developed enough to be able to do them fully and they can easily injure themselves by doing them wrong. Also, if you have ever watched younger children attempt to do a push up, their butts are in the air, when they go lower themselves down they just lay down on the floor. I remember when I was little doing push-ups I would push-up my torso while keeping my hips and legs on the ground. By having them do push-ups like that you are just teaching them bad habits that will be hard to break when they get older, which will lead them to just hate push-ups.

Why is rhythmic activity important for young children? 
     Rhythmic activity is important because it helps children remember things easier. For example, the ABC song. Ask any college student they still remember the song, and most likely still use it if they have to alphabetize anything, at least I do. Songs also make doing activities more fun. At the camp I work at when we have to walk from the cabin to the dining hall or to flag pole, we sing, always and they are songs you remember for the rest of your life. They also make everything more fun. When people work out, most people prefer to work out with music, so why should it be any different for younger students? Like we learned in lab, kids do not like brushing their teeth, but adding a song to it and it will make it more enjoyable. At the after school program I work at, we have a song for when the kids are washing their hands, so not only do they wash their hands for the length of time they are suppose to, they have more fun doing it.

Define laterality and explain why tracing giant letters helps reinforce cognitive learning.
   There were multiple definitions that I found for laterality. One definition said that it he difference in the mental functions controlled by the left and right cerebral hemispheres of the brain. Another definition said that it is the property of using one hand more than the other. Both of these definitions relate to students and having them trace giant letters. In 255, Dr. Yang's big thing was that we teach through the physical, since studies have shown that physical activity can enhance learning. By physical tracing letters in the air, both hemispheres of the brain are activated and students are more likely to remember the letters they traced out since by having the cognitive part of the letter connected with the physical tracing of the letter, it drives home the lesson more. When I am personally having trouble with a word, I still trace it out in the air so I can picture it in my mind.

Why are educators concerned about young children not being able to keep an internal beat?
   They are concerned because keeping an internal beat is a mental thing. It being internal, obviously means that people cannot hear it, and more often then not it is most likely a song that they are familiar with or that they heard and they liked the beat. If this is missing then there might be something wrong with the brain itself, or it might be a memory problem since if they cannot remember simple beats from a song, then it could lead to long term problems in the classroom such as remembering things that they learn, or problems with making connections between subjects.

Define homo-lateral and cross lateral movements.
   Homo-lateral movements are when a person is not crossing their body in order to do something. Such as jumping jacks, push-ups, star jumps, or simply just lifting an arm or leg into the air. Cross lateral movements are movements that involve cross body movements, such as laying on the ground and lifting your right leg, and left arm.


   

Lab Number One-Management

Why do class management and effective teaching go hand in hand throughout every day of teaching?
       They go hand in hand because you cannot be an effective teacher if you have bad classroom management. Children in classroom settings need structure and an everyday routine or else they do not know what do, and that effects their learning capabilities.

Why should your list of rules be short and positive?
       Children do not have long attention spans. When making rules, if you keep the list short they will most likely be able to remember them and re-call them when asked. Also, if you concentrate on the positives, children will not be afraid in your class. I remember having a teacher and all her rules started with Do Not Do This... One of the worst classroom experiences ever, I was to afraid to do anything for being scared of being punished.

List three reasons why students enjoy the squad square structure as well as three reasons why teachers benefit from employing the squad square structure for management?
   Students: They know where to go, social interaction, puts them into teams so it gets rid of the torture of picking teams.
  Teachers: Students can't hide-therefor gets rid of some misbehaving, can take attendance easier, can engage all the students at once.

 What common elements do all of the activities in this management lab share?
      They all involve organizing students and keeping track of students, without the students being aware that they are being kept organized. Also, it teaches students new concepts while playing games. Teaching through the physical.

How is the affective domain addressed in this lesson? How is the psychomotor domain addressed in this lesson? How is the cognitive domain addressed in this lesson?
    The affective domain is addressed by teaching the students about personal space and how to respect other students personal space. The psychomotor domain is addressed by keeping the students physically active with different motor skills such as skipping, running, galloping while doing different activities. The cognitive domain is addressed by teaching students new concepts, such as the definition of personal space and general space, and the difference between the two. 

Fnd another class room management activity:
      I know that at the summer camp I work with, when picking teams we have the kids play rock paper scissor shoot, then divide the winners from the losers then have them play again with winners vs winners and losers vs loser. Then we have them play again winners vs. winners of that round vs. losers vs. loser of that around until they are separated into four teams.  This mixes the kids up so that they are not just with kids that they are friends with, or that are all on the same skill level. It is also more fun than having a counselor stand there and count them off by fours.
    

Day 1-The Start of 355

My name is Victoria Turner and I am from New Hartford, NY. I like to snowboard, ice skate, play softball and basketball. I started working with younger kids when I started babysitting when I was about 13 years old, and now I am a lab assistant for Dr. Davis at CHAMP and I also coach softball over the summer for a 14 and under softball team. In this class, I would like to learn more about how to connect with little kids and how to really drive home the importance of life-long fitness in a way that they understand and in a way that would make them want to take part in life-time fitness.