Special Olympics Fall Games

Friday October 1, 2010 – Seneca Falls

The Special Olympics Fall Games is a huge event and I was happy to be a part of it. Today we were setting up for the games introduction ceremony as well as the events that were to follow in the up coming days. Chris Heim and I arrived at Seneca Falls bright and early that morning. Upon arriving there were a couple of Special Olympics personnel around but really not much activity. Once we wondered for a little bit we ran into Bill (who presented at our mini-conference), and he was stunned we were there and ready to help. To make a long story short they were not expecting any volunteers till 12 noon. We were there at 8 am, how fitting. Anyways after we had a good laugh, we got put to work. Chris and I had a hand in the setup of the games. Although we did not get a chance to work directly with the athletes, we still did our share. We put up tables for registration, sales, constructed soccer goals, set up fields etc. Pretty much you name it, we did it. That kept us busy up until other volunteers started to show up.

As other volunteers began to add up we had a meeting with the staff. This was to work out some of the logistics for the next two days. This event would be for not if there was not nearly the time people donate and put in. A lot of hours go into planning the games. The hours that we volunteers donate are what makes the games happen. It was cool interacting with some of the other people as everyone had a different story on how they got connected with the organization. Ages ranged from other college aged students to retired couples. All who just want to lend a hand and help out. The rest of the time spent was more practical rather then physically setting up. Here is a link that gives an overview of what will be taking place for the weekend. http://www.specialolympicsny.org/eventdetails.php?event_id=6909

All in all I ended up accumulating 8 hours toward my goal of 20. This experience was valuable to me as it gave me the chance to see first hand how the games was set up and run. Also on a side note it worked out in our favor getting there super early. This gave us the opportunity to interact and shadow the Special Olympics big wigs. All were personable and happy to have us. I was in contact in Stacy Gioeli who is the director of volunteer management. This is beneficial as I can get in touch with her to take advantage of future opportunities she may have in store for me.

End of the year wrap-up

Well what can I say other than it has been a successful semester. Thanks to Dr. Yang for showing us the ways of PE, and also to his TA staff: Toby, Russ, Kristen, John, and Melissa. I have taken a lot of positive experiences from this class, and really feel that I have improved greatly from day one. Here I have a collaboration of pictures taken throughout the semester of myself both teaching and participating. I used Animoto Video to form a pretty cool slide show with a sound clip attached!
Also thanks for all that have followed throughout the semester and have a great winter break!!

EXS 197 Mentor

Throughout this semester I have spent some of my time mentoring a group of 6 new incoming PE majors, 5 freshmen, and one transfer. My job was to help them get acquainted to the major by coaching them through the lab portion of the class. EXS 197 has been a MWF lecture class in the past, but with change going on in our program we have exchanged one of those class days with an activity lab with the focus trying to have future majors refine any basic skills that may need refining. Also in this lab students are given a background of a few styles of how PE used to be, and we found out the those ways were not as fun as what we have planned here at SUNY Cortland!

As stated before, the students I T.A. for are new to the major so it was my job to really transition them into it, and give them a background of the classes we take, and that we are in a serious major, and just also a few tips on professionalism: appropriate dress, being on time, and communication skills, as well as some other important characteristics. This truly is a good class because I feel it helps kids to see what PE is about their freshmen year in stead of waiting longer in your stay here at Cortland. Throughout this year a few students were turned away from the major because of this class, and it is good that they realized that before they got into any real block class's.

The last few weeks of class were focused towards skill testing of the critical elements. There was a sequence of 11 skills that were to be completed one after another and each student was then accessed based on there ability to preform the critical elements. The goal was to have every student be at a level of about a 3, this would provide an adequate class room demonstration and that is something that could be easily achieved with a little bit of practice each week throughout the semester. After it was all done all of my students obtained an average of a 3 on all the skills. I was real proud of them because they put in work throughout the year and then in the end it paid off. Great job!!!

I will be looking into helping out with this class again next semester if my schedule allows it to, but if not this was a great learning experience for me and I am glad I was chosen to be a part of it.

LAB D- STEP AEROBICS

What a load off to finish the final Lab-D experience. There was a lot of anticipation leading up to this lesson and once it got under way it all started to flow together. I was assigned the topic of aerobics and in our small teaching groups (Rob and Mike) we each picked a concentration of aerobics and I chose the step version. Each lesson leading up to this final one was brought about specific points of emphasis and all were drawn together in the end. The preparation for this lab required far more time and planning then the previous 3. Also with this lesson it was good to be solely on your own as it was a test to see what you as a PE Teacher were made of. Another requirement that was to be met in this lab was to incorporate the use of technology and for my lesson I used music to keep the tempo of exercise up and also to create a good environment for the students. Also there was a Wii Fit station set up in the gym, and this was used as a means to reward good behavior and for students that were staying on task. To take a look at what activities were scheduled for the class check out my Lesson Plan before continuing on with the rest of my reflection.

Now getting into the bulk lesson, I focused on 4 specific steps that I thought were interesting and also were not to hard to pick up at the same time. They were as follows: A-Step, Corner to Corner, Hop Turn, and I-Step. I had a poster for each step that broke it down into its different parts, where to start and also listed were the actual steps. The way I had the class set up was that I made each individual step its own station and there was about 4 students per station. I went over how to briefly do each step and then from there I pumped up the music and let the students get physically active while I cleared up any questions or confusion students might of had. There was approximately 2 minutes spent at each station before everyone rotated on to the next step. Now this rotation part of the lesson is a part of the class that was weak and I did not really explain myself to well in the beginning so I balm myself for the increased amount of time in between stations. By taking a look at my Time Coding Form you can quickly see when students were changing tasks. In the beginning of class I thought of a good idea to minimize wait time and confusion I handed out stickers to everyone, which then decided your group for you so we as a class could get right into the start of the lesson. Though I did not think about the transitions between step stations before hand it was clear in the see in the video that time could have been saved if the issue was addressed upon the start of the activity. A way to fix this issue would have simply just stated the order of rotation and also I could have called out a locomotor movement or something to pick up the pace to avoid walking and kids dragging their heals before practicing at the next step station.

Throughout this lesson I was able to make my way around the gym to offer help and feedback, to most, even though it can not all be scene or herd in the video. Also the fact that this 15 minute teaching allotted time was our longest experience yet, it is still not really enough time to really get around to all individuals and give good constructive feedback to really help them out. You do seek out the kids with questions or that are really struggling. While looking at the Feedback Analysis Form for my lesson you can see that I was able to reach out to just over half of the class with feedback, but for the most part a lot of the feedback was skill and cue related which is what we want. Feedback that is cue and skill specific lets the students know exactly what they are doing right, and also on the flip side what they might need to do to fix/ correct a skill to get it right.

For an overall evaluation of how I thought my lesson have a look in at the C-9 form that I completed. As you will notice I hit quite a few of the points on the check list and feel free to evaluate me as well using this blank form while viewing my video. Thanks for reading and watching!!

Lab C- "Curling on Ice!"

Here we are now in November, and with this time comes the years colder weather, so our class prepared for it by holding the days lesson in the ice arena. My partner and I (Brad) taught our International Lab C on a Curling Unit. Curling, the sport form, began in Scotland in the 16th century. The game has now evolved to what we see today competed at the games highest level in the Olympics. Other Curling Associations are in place and are successful, but is just not popular enough, yet for recreation play.

Now into the bulk of our lesson but first have a look at our Lesson Plan. Brad started off the class period and got us all acquainted with the ice as everyone seemed excited with the change of atmosphere. The cues for the day were the 3 L's of Curling: locate, lean, and let go. These work for all the types of throws in Curling which are, the draw, take-out, and guard. My lesson focus was on the take-out throw as we targeted in on Locating the pin. I did this in two ways first through the game f King Pin, and then worked up to more of a game type scenario by throwing with the presence of a friendly stone. While teaching this lesson I felt comfortable and confident, even though before hand was pretty nervous. Once I got into the swing of things the lesson started to flow. Parts that need to be work on for the future is that I need to just say what needs to be said and get caught up on one issue. This will come with more practice of the lesson. This comes into play when explaining drills or games for students to play. For this lesson the activity time was down from my previous class, but that can be due to the differing topics. Have a look for yourself at my Time Coding Form. This document shows what is going on in the class broken down every 10 seconds.

After watching the clip of my lesson, I realized a few things: one I never really did a demonstration, and two I really did not give much individual feedback. You can see for yourself by viewing my Feedback Analysis Form. I did engage the class and interact with them going down the lines checking up on the scores. I would personally not really consider that Feedback, but could be more of a check up to keep students on task. Throughout the class however I did reinforce the cues while making my way across the ice trying to stress the importance of Locating your target before Letting go. Also in dealing with the ice and the set up of the class I was really in control, but that at the same time that made it more difficult for me to get around the class to every individual. Ways I could improve on these areas could be to possibly single out groups, and then point out the good and poor parts of their attempt. This could be used as a demonstration if the group really has the skill down and a good way to give feedback too.

In closing I have to say that its a good thing I did not have to do a Transcription Analysis Form because every time I addressed the class I said "you guys." Not until the very end did I say "boys and girls," so over the next couple of weeks before my Lab D teaching experience I will try my best to kick the habit. That's all folks! Thanks for reading!

Mini Conference

Here at SUNY Cortland we are so lucky to have our own PE Mini Conference where surrounding area schools come out for a teacher in service day conference to see what is new in our changing field. I gave some of my time to help out with the conference put on by our majors club, and my duty was to help direct people to designated classrooms and answer any general questions one may of had. To make myself standout I was wearing a big giant sign that read "QUESTIONS??" It was not the most fashionable attire, but got the job done.
After my shift I attended a few sessions, the Polar Technology, and Dr. Rinks Keys To Be an Effective PE Teacher. In the first Polar Tech. session the main point that was stressed was grading and assessing PE. It is more than just showing up an being active, but how you can get into heart rate measure as an aspect of ones grade. The units were pretty costly to use for a whole class setting , but if your district had the money or was given a grant they would be great to have. In Dr. Rinks session she went a little more in depth and elaborated on her key note address and followed up with the points of accountability. Identify what you want your students to get out of the lesson, be clear. Manage the class by being engaging and set expectations, this combination will lead to effective teaching. One last point I took from this was that it is our job to motivate students to learn and want to partake in physical activity. This can be related along the lines of classroom management and engaging students.

Lab B- Mic'd Up

Look at this nice action shot mid lesson! This took place in my third teaching experience while teaching in our Lab B- Ultimate Micro Unit. My lesson task was the backhand throw through a hoop. I was the third or fourth lesson so we were still pretty basic with the cues and demonstrations. I particularly liked the flow of my lesson as I was able to get into an inter task variation, and also all of my classmates stayed on point and looked like they had a good time. I'm not saying it was excellent but was a good improvement from my previous time out.

The main aspect that really changed in this lesson from my previous few was how I managed the class. You can check it out by viewing my Time Coding Form. From this document you can see how the activity time was much higher and an even better plus was that there was no wait time in the class. This is key to have maximum participation from students when given the time, it is our job as PE Teachers to minimize wait time when possible. Another factor that also helped increase the activity time among students was the activity itself. Not once was a student caught on the side not being active, and again this relates back to the activity that was taught and also how it has to be taught.

With this Ultimate Lesson I was also able to improve on not just my feedback, but how I gave it as well. By looking at my Feedback Analysis Form you can see how I gave more than just general feedback. For a teacher by giving out specific skill or task oriented feedback it shows that you really are watching and involved in the lesson. From a students perspective than they get the urge to go out and do activity's in the right manor because they want to be noticed.

At the closure of my teaching lesson, I too received some feedback. Dr. Yang and his TA's do a great job of letting you know what they liked, and also what you need to work. For me and quite a few of the other students, voice projection is a key point and we took care of that right after all had completed their lessons, with the exercise "There ain't no flies on me." But anyway take a listen in to my lesson with the Box sound clip below and also check out the Transcriptions Form for any clarifications. Stay tuned to the next post as we will take a look in at the SUNY Cortland Mini Conference! That's all for now, but in the mean time take a Listen In.