The best moment in movement

Best moment in movement on Prezi

It's Christmas Time at St. Mary's

This was my final lab at St. Mary's this year.  For this lab I worked with the Pre-K students again.  We started out outside again running around the playground.  We were playing tag, hide and seek, hot lava with alligators, as well as sliding down the slide.  As they children were sliding down the slide, we were giving them high fives.  They absolutely loved the high fives.  At first they were not really enthused to slide down the slide.  After the high fives started flying the children absolutely loved flying down the slide.  Later on in the afternoon we had more and more students sliding down the slide slapping hive fives with everyone.  When we went inside I led my snowball challenge game.  This game had two teams on opposite sides of a 'fence' and the children had to throw the 'snowballs' to the side.  The winning team won stickers to decorate the ornaments that we brought in for the craft.  There was a few students that did not want to participate, but for the most part they seemed very excited to play.  They did a great job throwing the balls over the mat.  Some of them were using the T technique to throw, while we had to help others use the technique.  Overall this was a very great experience for me to gain experience teaching.   I learned a lot from this that I can use when I become a teacher myself.  This experience showed me what teaching in an elementary school is really like.  I am very thankful for this opportunity and I look forward to being a teacher assistant next semester.

Thanksgiving at St. Mary's

Monday's lab I was in the group who led the main activities.  I taught Turkey Soup.  It was a soccer type game where all the 'ingredenents' were placed in the middle of the gymnasium and bring it back to the 'pot' by kicking the balls into the goal.  I was able to keeps the kids attention very well this week because I kept my instructions short, so I would not lose them and their attention.  It was very fun even though only 5 students participated at first.  The students that participated seemed very excited to play and loved the game.  When I was asking some of the students who were not participating in the game one student said he did not want to play my game.  After the gymnasium was done we went down to the cafeteria.  I was playing mancala with Tim, and after I played store with Suzy.  They were very happy to have us students their playing with them and they loved every minute of it.  Back up in the gym I played tag with Joey, and Billy.  They were having a riot trying to tag me and have me be it.  It was a lot of fun today.  I look forward to the last lab at St. Mary's.  Even though it is the last lab that we will have their, it was a great experience where I learned a lot about teaching to the elementary aged school kids.  They are so excited to see us every time we go, and every week they tire you out because you are playing with them and chasing them around the gym.  

The Creep- The Jumping Jack and Jills

Halloween at St. Mary's

Halloween at St. Mary's was a blast.  The children were all wound up because of the holiday and they were all looking forward to going trick or treating.  It was very difficult to keep them under control while teaching them the game that I created.  We started out playing tag outside on the playground.  I was dressed up in a banana costume and all the kids tried ripping my top off chasing me.  When we came back inside it was a little difficult to keep the kids attention while explaining my game of ghost and goblins with them.  They were very wild, excited, and just wanted to run around.  I thought my game went very well even though it was difficult to explain my game to them due to their excitement.  It was very enjoyable seeing the children excited see everyone dressed up for Halloween, you feel a better connection to the students that way.  It also shows that you are making an effort in trying to relate to them.  After I was done teaching was went to Hula Hoop with Freddy.  He was very good at it, much better than me I must say.  He was tell ing me that a pre-k student taught him how to do it, by swinging your hips forward and backwards.  He was teaching me how to do it.  Also he was telling me how he was trying to catch a ball and throw it back while hula-hooping for the talent show that was coming up.  This was another successful lab and I look forward to leading games next time for Thanksgiving.

St. Mary's Lab 3

This week I worked with the pre-k group, and they really tire you out.  It was a blast working with them.  I was very impressed seeing how developed they were with their motor skills.  When we were out on the playgroup playing hot lava, tag, and hide and go seek I was very impressed with their running ability.  It seemed that some of them, at least the children that I was working with were well beyond the initial stage of running, into the early elementary, and about ready to jump right into the mature running state.  As we moved inside I lead a game called crossing the brook.  In this game I brought two jump ropes laying next to each other on the gym floor and we jumped over them using the leap and horizontal hop that we were observing earlier in the day.  The children performed very well with these tasks, and were really eager to play the game.  It was great working with the students Monday.  I feel the more I teach here, and with 255 I am improving as a teacher tremendously.  I look forward to next week to improve my teaching ability to become the best teacher that I can become.  Working here at St. Mary's is a blast, it is a very good learning experience, and I look forward to continuing the semester working here helping the students improve their physical education abilities.

Video clip for 201

The making of this clip was very enjoyable.  I am looking forward to creating our skit.

Observations for Lab 2

Monday's lab was very enjoyable for me.  I felt like the students really enjoyed the games that they participated in.  All of the students seemed very enthused and eager to be there, and also seemed really excited to see us there to interact with them.  I made a poster to go with the theme of the day, and the theme was friendship.  I helped create a poster that spelled "FUN" with the Spongebob FUN song lyrics on it.  As for our game that Devon and I had the students play, I felt went very well.

 Yes, their are some things that we need to improve but overall I feel that it went very smoothly.
We related it to Finding Nemo, and the students really enjoyed that because they could relate to the movie.  We had to save Nemo and avoid getting tagged by the sharks.  The students were very eager to play it that it was difficult keeping their attention to finish explaining the game to them.  I was very pleased with the way the game went.  Also the students really enjoyed the chicken dance too.



 It is very gratifying seeing their faces light up when they are playing the games.  I really look forward to going back their to work with them again.  Also I look forward to working with children in the future to further their physical education in order to lead a physically fit and active lifestyle.

How do you better dodgeball?

Dodgeball is a game that was played in physical education classes and now it is placed in the hall of shame.  Dodgeball is considered inappropriate in the educational setting because it singles out students as well as having students inactive during games.  I personally feel it should be in the physical education curriculum but with some modifications.  You can have targets at the back of the gymnasium that the students have to hit instead of aiming for other classmates.  But in order to knock down the targets you have to stand a specified distance away and you can have defenders that can try to block the targets.  If you hit someone that is not a defender you would go to one side of the gym and can try to hit the targets from that specified area, and once one target gets knocked down everyone who went to 'jail' can be released.  This way you are not having students targeted, they are targeting a stationary object.  Also everyone is active trying to knockdown the targets, it helps with the issue that no one is sitting down anymore.  As a physical education teacher we want everyone to be active as much as we can!!

Chapter 1-3

Assessing the skill development the fundamental skills as students progress in age is extremely important.  Students need to progress to be able to achieve everyday tasks such as walking, writing, running, and many more activities.  Having students achieve a performance benchmark should be your main goal as a teacher.  According to Gallahue and Donnelly, A performance benchmark is a behavior that indicates progress toward a performance goal (5).  A performance benchmark for example could be throwing a football with a correct spiral eight times out of ten attempts.  Underneath performance benchmark is performance standard as well as content standard.  These are what the student should be able to do as well as the expected level of achievement (5).

Motor skills need to develop in sequences.  Its is very unlikely that an eighteen month old baby is going to go out, run and win the Boston Marathon.  They need to go through several developmental stages in order to mature as a physically active being.  For instance before you can run you have to be able to walk, and before you can walk to have to be able to stand.  As one develops their motor skills with walking they learn to walk sideways, up a set of stairs, down a set of stairs, then on to a hurried walk (38-39).  Eventually their running and walking capabilities develop into the mature stage.  Once the mature stage has been reached they will continue to develop into better runners and learn about the different techniques as the mature.

Assessing the developmental skills a very important.  One reason is because as a teacher you want all of your students to be the most physically fit they can be.  It is extremely important to asses with the NYS and NASPE standards.  These standards specify that all students are able to perform basic motor skills, they are able to value physical activity, have resources available for them, and preform physical education safely.  Being able to move fundamentally is an important aspect to physical education.  Before advancing to more difficult tasks students have to be able to master the basics, and lower level skills.  By being able to asses these things, you as a teacher assist the slower developers in becoming fundamentally sound, and also seeing when a student demonstrates each concept wholly they allow them to move on in their development.