The end has come

     This week was my last week at St. Mary’s after school program. I have to say I am upset to say goodbye. However I am so thankful for this opportunity and experience. It has been wonderful for my teaching experience, I have learned a lot about teaching techniques and the way age groups differ. At St. Mary's I have working in the PRE K program and worked with students all the way up to 5th grade. The younger and older students are very different. I have learned that the younger student enjoy games with a story to it and enjoy very much tag games, they love to chase someone or be chased. The older students like to just play games the whole time. When I worked with the older students all they wanted to do was play basketball or the girls wanted to jump rope. So I split my time and did both. I enjoyed working at St. Mary's very much I have learned a lot about myself. I learned what teaching techniques I am comfortable with. I have learned that I enjoy working with any age group and in the future I will be happy with whatever job I receive. My last lab was very fun. In the beginning we played with the parachute. All the kids enjoyed it very much; they did not want to stop. After that we broke up into our groups. My group was in the cafeteria and then the gym. In the cafeteria the students ate snacks and played board games. When they went to the gym all the wanted to do was play games. The students I worked with were the older children. 

      The boys wanted to play basketball and the girls either wanted to talk or jump rope. One of the members of my group and I decide to play jump rope with the girls. This went out for almost he entire time. The girls knew many roping games and rhythms. I learned a lot! I had a lot of fun and I enjoyed my last lab very much. I cannot wait for my future classes were I interact with students so I can improve my teaching ability more and more.

       I believe my experience at St. Mary's will be my foundation of teaching and I believe in the future it will have been the reason I use the type of teaching techniques I choose to use. Thank you again St. Mary's for a wonderful time!

Check out my last lab write up (Lab 6)

I can play like a pro!

Lab #5 at St. Mary's


This week at St. Mary's my group worked with the cafeteria group. At first we were outside playing in the playground and then we went into the gym. In the playground we were with the younger children. Let me tell you how creative these children are. Their imagination is very amazing and they have fun wherever they are. At first they were shy but after a little while they were talking up a storm. Many of the children wanted to play hide and seek and wanted me to be the seeker! I believe they like the idea of hiding and being found. Then we played a tag game and they sure do love chasing you! They chased me all around the playground and never got tired. After this I began playing princesses with two little girls. Their imagination with quite amazing, I could not believe the things they came up with. We went to a ball, had a tea party, and played princess tag. While having a tea party with these young girls they were very talkative and talked about anything and everything. They asked a million and one questions and were very funny. After the play ground my group went into the gym to play games with the older children. Older children do not want to play the games you planned they rather just play a sport the whole time. 

So my group decide we will just play basketball for the entire time. There were only a hand full of older children and there were only boys, so we decide to play the boys against the girl teachers. The students loved this idea. Getting involved in the games and being excited to play helps the students want to play and actually enjoy the game. My group and myself were very surprised that these boys were amazingly good at playing basketball. They all know the basics and more and it was a great game. This week I had the privilege to work with the older students and understand what they like to do in the physical education setting. Throughout my past labs I have learned a lot about the game choice you decide for each age group. When working with older children you want to focus on a game where there is some type of competition. This causes the students to want to do their best and play the game they’re hardest. 

When working with the younger children you want to play a game that has a story behind it. This keeps the younger children interested in your game and it makes them want to continue the story. When working with a mixed age group you want your game to be easy and have a lot of physical activity. Tag games are the best to play with mixed aged groups because everyone likes a good game of tag. Next week is my last lab at St. Mary's it is sad to say this but I know that this experience has been amazing and will help me to be a better educator. 
 

Check out my Lab#5 write-up

ExerGame Lab: Learning through technology!

Technology Can Be Fun!

Last Monday instead of going to St. Mary's we had an ExerGame Lab! It was SO much fun! We played a bunch of games that anyone could play at home however it was a little different. We played dance dance revolution. At first I was confused on how this could be affective in the physical education classroom but after we went through all the games it was quick clear to me that these games were perfect for physical education! The dance dance revolution can be used to stimulus coordination, reaction time, agility, and ability to move to a pattern and also help on focusing. While playing the game I thought about all the educational areas I was working on, I was really shocked that a still game can do so much. Another game that I played was NBA on Xbox however the only way to power the game to play was to run in place on a machine. This was such a great idea it focuses physical activity in a usually non-physical game. I believe if this was brought into the physical education room many children would enjoy this because it is a common game the only difference is physical activity is added into it. There was another game that was a racecar video game but to power the game you had to pedal on a stationary bike. This game caused a lot of physical activity by the end of the game I most of sweat tons of calories. Fun and interesting games like this will cause children to want to be physically active and want to do what it takes to achieve success in the game. Lastly we were told to play with a bunch of small toys and thing of ways how they could be used in the physical education classroom. Some of the toys we played with were foam object shaped as an animal and a letter was cut in the middle of the foam object. These foam letter animals could be used to help young children learn the alphabet Also they can be used in fun ways like hiding the foam objects in certain areas and once the children find the object they most recite the letter and make the sound the animal made that the foam is shaped as. I believe technology will create a new way of teaching in the future and phyical educators today should begin to get used to this idea! WE ARE THE FUTURE!

Learning can be fun!

Learning through Technology and Music

Check out the music video my group made! The song lyrics are about what we are learning in my PED 201 class from chapter 7 in our books. At first I thought it was silly to be doing this but when it is all said and done I know all the material from the chapter. Fun and different ways like this motivate people to want to learn more!

HOP LIKE A BUNNY

Hop like a bunny

This week my group worked in the PreK room! I had such a great time working with this age group. I was in charged of the craft that was to be made for that day. I choose to have the children make Easter eggs since Easter is around the corner. I bought a bunch of white paper plates and cut them into an egg shape. I also but construction paper and vinegar. With the construction paper I cut out a bunch of different shapes. I let the children that as many of the little pieces of construction paper as they wanted and I also let them color the "egg." The more color the better! when there were done decorating their "egg" I had them bring it over to me and I painted vinegar onto the construction in a different room. As the construction paper pieces dried they left the dye of whatever color it was on the "egg." The children loved this craft! They wanted to do more and never stop. I was very excited that my craft was successful. This made me feel confident that I am becoming a better teacher day by day. After the craft another member of my group read a story to the class called "Rainbow Fish." It was a great book after that it was snack time then it was time to go to the gym and play games. One of the games we played required the children to do whatever move the teacher called. Since Easter was around the corner we stuck with this them. We made the children hop like bunnies, roll like an egg, and try to form into a basket. The PreK students were so cooperative I was very surprised. Over all I had a successful forth visit to St. Mary's! I can't wait to go back this experience has been a great help to helping me become a better overall teacher.

Check out my My lab reflexion!!

The Great Debate

PE Debate

Tuesday of this week we had a PE Debate in my PED 201 Class at SUNY Cortland. The topic that was being covered was what curriculum emphasis is more appropriate for the students in New York State. The three different curriculum's that were being represented were skill themes advocates, Fitness Education Fanatics, and Sticks in Sports and PE Enthusiasts. I was on the Skill Theme advocates team. Our team believe that PE curriculum's should be based around teaching the student locomotor skills. Without learning locomotor skill children do not have the basic skills to play sports. The overall Debate was a great experience it was a great way to should us, future PE teachers, what could happen if you have to fight for what you believe in. I believe this experience will help us all grow strong in becoming the best PE teacher we can be. Physical Education is the future and we need to make sure as teacher we not the proper ways to fight in what we believe in. 

Check out the research my group did by looking at our PowerPoint :)
Also check a live stream of the debate 

Olympic Torch; St. Mary's

3rd Lab at St. Mary's

This week was my 3rd time at St. Mary's working with the students.  I have to say this week went very well. My group this week worked in the gym.  We had to lead the first games and make sure the students used specific locomotor skills. The skills that we used were leaping, sliding, and vertical jumping. My game was called Olympic Torch.  The equipment I needed was two hula hoops, two cones, and two holdable items that can be seen as "torches." The students line up in about 4 different teams with the first person from each team standing inside a starting hula hoop. I gave the students in the hula hoop a "torch." On the signal to begin, the students had to run to the cone and run back. They will hand the torch to the next student in line who will then run to the cone and back. This continued until i have the signal to stop. Some modifications I made was instead of having the children run I interacted them to leap, slid, and vertical jump. The students played the game very well and seemed to like it. I believe the teaching strategies I used helped me capture the students attention. Some teaching strategies I used are getting down to eye level with the students, getting excited about the activities, having the students sit in a corner when I speak to them so they do not get distracted by anything, and modifying games if I have to so the students understand the goal better. I believe these strategies were very effected. The one strategy I feel worked the best was being excited about the activities. I’ve noticed that if I am excited and pumped to play the activities the students feed off my excitement and what to play the game as well. This is a great way to have the student do what you want because I guarantee it will work 90% of the time. Going to St. Mary's and working with the student have helped me to feel more comfortable and more confident that I will be a great teacher candidate. Being a PE teacher it is your job to keep the children active and by having great teaching strategies I believe you can be successful. I can not wait to go back to St. Mary's and work with the children again.

Check out my refelction on my 3rd lab at St. Mary's!! Lab 3 write-up