Buroinjin!!!

Hello everyone,
I've been alittle behind on my blog lately sorry for that.  This past week Nicole Sherman and myself have been working hard on our Lab C.  Lab C is the international lab where we all pick a game/sport from that originated from a different country.  The class and I travelled down to sunny Australia to learn about and play Buroinjin.  Never heard of it?  Well then let me explain it, there are two teams on a field at a time; each team usually consists of 2 players.  The players can run and pass in any direction when they have the ball, if they are tagged by a player on the opposite team they must pass or get rid of the ball within 3 steps or 3 seconds.  To score one team must get the ball into their endzone.  My lesson focused mostly on the defensive aspects of the sport.  The class learned defensive strategies for 2 on 1 situations as well as equal defending situations.  Lastly, the class got a chance to try and defend while on the run which simulates a game-like situation.  After watched the video taken in class I noticed a few positive and negative aspects to my lesson.  I did not walk with my back against the wall.  This is hard to remember when teaching because I am trying to engage and work with students, but I forget to work around the gym with my back against the wall so I can keep an eye on the entire class.  I also need to project my voice more.  The gym is big and I am competing for volume in there so I need to keep in mind that the louder I speak the easier it is for my students to hear me.  I did give a lot more feedback than I had in the past.  I focused on giving more specific feedback to individual students as well as positive feedback to keep them on track and trying hard.  I picked activites that I thought would keep students engaged and interested.  My last activity seemed to have some down time for students that weren't running down the field passing, but in class it proved to keep most students moving.  The students were either running down trying to pass and defend on the move or running down the sidelines to get back in line; by the time they got back in line it was time to go again.  There are a few things I need to remember when teaching, but I am improving with every experience which is good.  Check out my video and let me know what you think!

Holly - Fall 2010 - Lab C International

Cradle Beach

Hi everyone!
I wanted to share with all of you what I did this weekend.  I went to this place in Angola, NY called Cradle Beach.  Cradle Beach is mostly used during the summer for as a sleepaway summer camp for children with disabilities.  But during the year they open it up on certain weekends and have respites where people both young and old with disabilities come and interact with the respite workers and spend the weekend doing a variety of activites.  I was a summer camp counselor there all summer so on the weekends that they have respites I go there to help entertain and work with disabled people.  To qualify to be a respite camper a person must not live on their own or in a group home so they have to be taken care of by a family member or a friend or they have to have an IQ less than 60.  I spent the weekend with many different people that had variety of disbilities.  Throughout the weekend we carved pumpkins, had a Buffalo Sabres party, did arts and crafts, played on the play ground and many other things.  We celebrated halloween and the fall with making paper masks, tracing leaves, and taking nature walks a long paths in the forests.

This is a picture of one of the respite campers that I worked with his halloween mask on.  Because of HIPAA laws we can not publish pictures of the campers without parent consent.  It's hard to explain exactly what we did without showing everyone so I can show this picture because this particular camper's face is covered with the halloween masks we made.  Every camper got a chance to make a paper mask to wear to our halloween costume party and to take home.

This picture shows all the pumpkins that the campers painted and carved throughout the weekend.  After carving the pumpkins we all sorted the seeds and went back into the kitchen and taught everyone how to make pumpkin seeds.  We allowed all the campers to be actively involved with putting salt on the seeds, putting them in the oven, timing how long they cook for, then serving them.  All the campers were not only proud of how good their pumpkins turned out, but they also we so happy that they made the pumpkin seeds.

Every night after dinner we would take the campers out to the back of the camp to see the sunset across the lake.  It was something that they looked forward to every night and it brought a smile to everyone's faces.  It moment like that which put everything in perspective and reminds us of how lucky we are to have a job where we can provide people with memories like these that they will always cherish.  Working with people that have disabilities is not always easy, but it is one of the most personally rewarding and feel good things that you can do.  This is what I spent my summer as well as this weekend doing.

Hi everyone!
This is a video of my latest teaching experience.  There are a few things that I noticed that I could've improved on and somethings that I did do a good job on.  It's hard to fit everything into a lesson when there is only 4 minutes to teach.  I had forgotten to give an introduction, signal for attention and a strong hook.  I did mention "hot hands" to help the students relate to the frisbee catch.  I demonstrated how the catch should look stationary going over the cues so the students could see how the cues matched up with the actual catch.  I did not do an actual moving demonstration. I should've picked a student to throw me the frisbee so I could show the class how to implement the catch correctly.  I also should've showed common errors that most students make when catching the frisbee.  After showing common errors I should've explained how to fix these errors and help students understand the proper way to catch.  At the end of the lesson I went over the cues to make sure the students were paying attention and left knowing how to catch a frisbee.  There are a few things I needed to change in my lesson, with more time I think I could've made my lesson much better.  But in the given amount of time I did a decent job of showing the students the frisbee throw as well as letting them practice and gave them a competition to peak their interest. Here is my time coding sheet which shows how I split my time up while teaching.  I didn't have any recorded waiting or management time.  I spent most of class having students engaging in activity.

Hey Guys!! I want everyone to check out the picture I posted.  This Sunday I spent my day volunteering at Hope Lake Lodge for breast cancer awareness.  Hope Lake Lodge is a newly built hotel that has a waterpark attached for their guests.  The water park is mostly indoors but they have a waterslide that starts inside the build, goes outside, then comes back in.  They also have a pool that connects from indoors and outdoors which is open all year round.  The water park is amazing and while I was there everyone looked like they were having a ball.  The rule usually is only guests from the hotel can take advantage of this great waterpark.  But for Sunday the waterpark was open to anyone who wanted to spend the day splashing around.  You could use they waterpark all day as long as you bought a pass where all proceeds went to the Breast Cancer Foundation.  Anthony D., my five housemates as well as myself all volunteering our services for the day.  We got to stack tubes in the waterpark itself and interact with children and families.  We also sold tickets at the door, put wristbands on everyone who entered the building, and we directed traffic so people parked in the correct parking lot.  All in all the day was fun, we all enjoyed ourselves while helping others.  We're already planning on volunteering next year!!! 

Sneak Attack First Day of Class in EDU 255

Hey Guys!!
On the very first day of class Professor Yang surprised all of us and told us we were to be teaching a lesson right of the bat.  My first thoughts were there is no way I can do this without any preparation and I automatically got nervous.  My seconds thoughts were there is no way I can do a good job if I doubt myself right from the start.  So I then put on my postive and creativity hat on and came up with a good activity to teach on a first day of class.  It's always important to get to know your students right of the bat and have students know each other's names.  I used a fun activity to not only helped the students and me as the teacher learn names but it also worked on hand-eye coordination.
After watching my video there are a few things that I noticed that need to be worked on.  As a teacher I need use my voice to control the class and the activity.  In this particular video my voice was soft and hesitant.  Next time I teach I need to focus on not being nervous and having full confidence in my teaching ability and using my voice to portray this confidence.  I also need to find a way to get the students interested right off the bat.  I need to use a HOOK so students are engaged and anxious to see what I am going to teach.  All in all I don't think my surprise teaching attack went that bad.  There are a few things I need to work on.  Let me know what you guys think!

Homework Assignment #1

What is meant by the idea that teaching is a goal-oriented activity?

Creating goals to be achieved prior to, during, and after lessons is important for helping educate students.  It helps them to focus on certain aspects of the lesson and gives them a foundation to build onto.  The standards are set by New York State to create structure so that every student can get the most out of their class and their teacher.  Each grade level has different skill levels that should be met and it is the Physical Educator’s job to help each student meet each skill level. 

Why is the process that teacher’s use to teach content important?

It is the teacher’s job to get their students engaged and interacting as much as possible during each lesson.  The way that the teacher goes about teaching content is critical in keeping kids interested in any topic.  The teacher should use techniques that captures the student’s attention and makes them strive to meet each goal to the best of their ability.  As teacher’s we don’t want our students to just go through the motions day by day and forget skills and goals after time.  We want to make a lasting impression of each student and make sure the skills we teach stick with them and become lifelong skills.

Why is the movement task-student response unit of analysis so important in physical education?

Movement task-student response is important in providing students with proper feedback as well as providing the teacher with a self check system that allows them to see if they are teaching skills effectively.  It allows the teacher to explain the task/goal and watch students follow instructions and assess where each student ranks as well as allows the teacher to see which areas need more focus for different students.