The End Of The Road: Lab D

So, this is it, the grand finale. Lab D was a great experience for me. This lesson provided me with lots of information to be used in my future teaching endeavours. A few things that I thought I did well within the lesson is keep people active. After viewing the time coding form for the lesson I noticed that I had students active for the majority of the lesson! This was a big accomplishment for me because I knew it would be challenging to keep all the students involved for that long. I also felt that I did a good job explaining the drills and making sure everybody had a good idea what was going on.

I also felt that I did a great job incorporating the idea of stress management into my lesson. Initially when presented with the challenge of needing to somehow teach stress management during the lesson was intimidating. However, I was able to incorporate it into the lesson in a way that made it fun for the students by allowing them to go a little wild and have fun in a non traditional way through table tennis. Another area that I thought I did well with was dealing with Justin when his behavior was out of line. Although I made the mistake of letting him an Colin continue to be partners, I learned from the experience and was able to keep him in line when I spoke to him. I also believe that I did a good job keeping my feedback congruent to the skills and managed to speak with a lot of the students. As far as the lesson focus, I had the task of teaching a Reciprocal teaching style, which meant that students need to be taught the skill, then provide feedback and analysis to the other students. I incorporated this into the lesson by having the students watch each other as partners, and then offer constructive feedback to them. I felt this was excellent because it allowed students to remain focused on the cues of the serve, which were open-close, and hit-bounce-bounce.

However, there is no such thing as perfect teaching. I did notice a few areas I need to improve on. Although it was eventually corrected throughout my lesson, I noticed that with my dialogue that at certain times I referred to the class as "guys". Although it may not seem like a big deal, I understand that this is a potentially large issue to some people. An alternative that I try to use is saying things such as everybody, class, and students. I also did not thoroughly go over my classroom rules and procedures, or introduce a solid safety statement. I realized this and eventually delivered them throughout the lesson, but I should have mentioned them sooner. I know I still need to keep practicing these things, but I know I am improving each time.

I also noticed that I did not follow my lesson plan exactly as I had intended, or use most of my progressions as thoroughly as I wanted to. I think this is because I wanted to focus on keeping the students entertained and active, and realized my activities maybe were too simple for students at a high school level. I did feel however that I did a good job adapting and managing to keep the class focused and active on the skills.

The observations I received from teaching this lesson will definitely help me to improve student learning in the future. I will continue to devise ways to keep the students active for more than fifty percent of the lesson like desired. I also will concentrate on making more age appropriate progressions for future classes so that I can continue to challenge the students. Lab D definitely was a crazy experience, but like I have said time and time again, each time I practice I improve, and I can only wait to keep moving forward in my career!

I also created a pretty cool collage and video slide-show to help remember the lesson, and to allow people to see all the work that goes into this profession! Hope you enjoy the experience as much as I know I have!

Lab D Video Practice 2

Here is another pre Lab D video. While Trent was filming, the camera died, so we only captured five minutes of the lesson, but it still shows somewhat what I plan to do for my lesson. I am excited to have the opportunity to teach tomorrow. I am very nervous, but look forward to challenging myself and becoming a better teacher.

Lab D Video Practice One

 

Here is take one of the beginning of my Lab D lesson. Here, I am just going over an instant activity and a basic beginning to the lesson and what we are going to be doing.

Lab C: Rugby, England's Game

For my Lab C unit, I taught how to position yourself on defense during a Rugby match. I knew it would be challenging to teach, but I was looking forward to the challenge. I thought I did a good job explaining what I wanted the students to do, and demonstrating to them how to perform the tasks. I feel that is important because it helps prevent me from having to randomly stop the class and waste time throughout the lesson since it is all explained clearly at first. I also gave students the opportunity to ask questions which was important. I also felt I did a good job having the lesson flow along. I felt like the students all were engaged throughout the lesson.

I did make a few mistakes though throughout my lesson though. I could have managed my time better throughout the lesson as there were times that I spent too long explaining a task. Another issue I faced is that I didn't give as much feedback as I probably should have relating to the skills versus general feedback. I also felt that my voice trailed off at times which made it hard for me to be heard. Another problem I had was that my technology did not work all the way. A video I had made to show live defense did not play correctly, which hurt my visual-aid for my lesson. I also could have done a better job of making more complicated games, versus the simpler drills I had students perform.

I can use these observations to help impact student learning in future lessons. I can do this by finding a better way to engage the students by showing more effort since I saw I needed that in my lesson. I also can use this information from teaching to help by finding a quicker way to explain my activities in the future so there can be more activity time for the students.







Another thing that was interesting about this lab was how we had to integrate technology into the lab as well as the blog. Through Picassa's software, I was able to create a collage

as well as a video-slideshow about my lesson. It is really interesting for me to be able to use this technology to improve my teaching! I am looking forward to improving on my next lab!

Jump Rope Reflection

 

After this week's lab of teaching jump rope skills, I definitely felt like I had improved from the last time. I felt like I did well explaining the skills, and making a connection with my hook. I noticed people were interested and paying attention to the skills I was teaching and paid attention while i was speaking. I also gave plenty of opportunities for students to ask questions if they needed to. While they were performing the skill, I used teaching-by-invitation during activities by having the students have the option of challenging themselves by speeding up or slowing down the skills.

I did however notice areas that I needed to improve on. I need to do a better job of moving around the classroom to be able to communicate with more students and have more students feel involved. I also at times needed to speak louder because the jump ropes drowned out my voice. I also spent a little too much time instructing the students rather than having them be active the entire time.

My observations can help impact student learning in the future for a few different reasons. I will be able to move around more effectively in order to benefit more students at once. I also will be quicker and more efficient with explaining the skill so more students can be active at once and spend less time being bored listening to me explain skill sets. Overall, I feel like I improved on my teaching from the first time, but I still have lots to work on. I really am excited to keep progressing and eventually become a true rockstar Physical Education instructor.

Rockstar Teaching Take Two

After viewing my video for this teaching segment, I saw some things that I liked and others that I didn't. I thought I did a good job projecting my voice and getting the attention of the class. I also felt like I did a good job explaining the skill, breaking it all down and allowing students to ask questions helped me ensure that everybody understood the activity loud and clear. I also felt like I gave constant feedback to the students as they completed the skill, and knew every rockstar's name. I did notice a few areas where I needed some improvement. My dialogue was very choppy at times, and I often times used words such as gonna, wanna, etc. versus saying going to and wanting to. I also was very fidgety at times with my hands and would clap or rub my legs or something like that. I also realized after completing the Time Coding Form that though I thought I had students active and involved, I really had many students standing around and not participating since they were waiting in a line. My observations of this teaching segment will help to improve student learning because I will be able to make necessary changes. I would get the activity level of the students much much higher by splitting them into smaller groups, or working on a different technique to have more students involved. Overall the experience was great, and I am looking forward to continuing to progress as a teacher!

(Dr. Yang, I did not add any pictures of the three required because there are no pictures of me in the album that I could find. Any information is appreciated.)

Names and Dance Moves

 

So the challenge is to name all the rockstars and their dance moves, so here we go:

Bottom Row L to R:

Cassie- She rocked the shimmy

Sarah- She pulled out the swim move

Vikki- She wasn't there for the dancing

Sarah- She did the twist

Emily- She did the karate kick

Second Row L to R:

Connor- None due to injury

Cody- Busted out the wave

Ryan- Did some elbow slaps

George- The infamous worm

Eric- Did the John Wall

William- Checked himself out in the mirror

Third Row

Sam- Did the lighthouse

Shane- Taught us how to dougie

Greg- Grabbed his knee and head and busted out a break dancing move

Steve- Started up the lawn mower

Fourth Row

Corey- Shook his shirt

Me!- Got some groceries with the shopping cart

Justin- Did the Jerk

Matt- Did the Cat Daddy

Rob- Snapped his fingers and hit his hands to a rhythm

Teachers Assistants Not In Photo:

Ryan C.- The sprinkler

Nicole- Brushed her shoulders off

Ben- Q-Tipped his ears

Andy- Hula

Getting The Butterflies Out

It has been an exciting weekend for me! We had our first Rugby game of the season on Saturday against Fredonia. We won the match 32-14. This is great because we graduated 9 to 11 seniors last year, and nobody in all of New York State Rugby is giving us any respect. Games like this make you feel amazing, and especially how well everything clicked on the first game of the season! The feeling of camaraderie you get from playing this sport is unequaled.  The photo is from last years State Championship game in RPI that we won. (I'm #21 with the white shorts in the middle) This season looks to be promising for us, and hopefully we can repeat as State Champions. Here is a link to check up on how we are doing: http://nysrugby.org/php/games/standingspick.php (We are Western Division II). We play Ithaca this Saturday at 1pm at the Rugby field, hopefully we get some more support!

Homework and Thoughts

Question #1: What is meant by the idea that teaching is a goal oriented activity?

Answer: According to the book, goal oriented teaching is when a process is meaningless unless it has a clear goal regarding what the student will learn. I take this to mean that every activity that is performed or every task that is assigned needs to be structured in a way that is easily understood, and broken down appropriately to allow for the learning to take place. Every action has a purpose.

Question #5: Why is the movement task-student response unit of analysis so important in Physical Education?

Answer: I feel that it is so important because it allows for you to view what the student is doing, and allows you to be able to manipulate and change their approach or offer corrective feedback to help them perform the task correctly. It allows you to see their actions as well as reactions to help formulate a way to help cause improvement. That is why it is so essential to Physical Education.

Question #7: What is the relationship between teaching functions and teaching skills? List two teaching functions teachers must perform, and describe two alternative behaviors teachers can choose to perform these functions.

Answer: Teaching functions are when you focus on the purpose of a teaching behavior rather than only on the specific behavior. Teaching skills I take to mean how effective you are at causing the learning to take place, and the different styles you use to do so. One teaching function that must be performed is having students understand the rules of a game. One way they could do this is by printing out hand copies of the rules, and passing them out. Another behavior that could be performed is demonstrating the game, talking and answering questions throughout the demonstration. Another teaching function that must be performed is having a student acquire a skill, for example, how to throw a ball. One behavior that could be done is to just simply throw the ball and have the students watch. Another behavior can be to slow down the throw, break it down so all steps are mentioned, while providing feedback and answering questions. Basically integrating the throw while explaining the skill would be the best way to go.

The text mentioned how every teacher will have their own teaching style based off their own ideas. I feel that my teaching style will be very controlled. I plan to break things down into the simplest form for the students, and allow them to progress and improve upon their skills. I am looking forward to the opportunity.

Teaching Reflection

So this is what it feels like to teach! Overall, I must say I feel like I have a lot to improve on. I did like how I offered corrective feedback during the lesson and allowed time for questions to be asked if necessary. However, it was hard to hear myself teaching, and I realized I should move around the class more versus staying stationary. It was great to teach though, I am looking forward to the next opportunity!

First Post

I have never tried blogging before, but now is time to give it a shot. This summer flew by so fast I couldn't even believe it. When I wasn't working at the Nursing Home, gettting in shape for Rugby Season, or hanging with friends and family, I spent most of my time trying to get out and help former coaches prepare for their seasons. I feel that even though I didn't have much experience this summer, it definitely helped me when it came to the first day of class. When I was told I would have to teach to the class, I was a little intimidated at first, but I quickly felt comfortable and that I did a fair job at teaching how to pass a Soccer ball. I am looking forward to the rest of the semester and working towards a future as a Physical Educator.