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.