tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15154430738025886082024-03-14T01:35:13.353-07:00Matt's AdventuresMatt's PEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02922007274283839516noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515443073802588608.post-45217342329775443462009-05-14T07:33:00.000-07:002009-05-14T09:18:28.423-07:00My time at The YMCA<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Dn3neTnQPnY/SgxEP7pCVNI/AAAAAAAAAC4/H_lmxqSIphQ/s1600-h/guflogo.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 167px; height: 100px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Dn3neTnQPnY/SgxEP7pCVNI/AAAAAAAAAC4/H_lmxqSIphQ/s320/guflogo.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335714699025732818" /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Dn3neTnQPnY/SgxEKZ3hzLI/AAAAAAAAACw/yNKxmvY1GAM/s1600-h/buffnialogo.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 48px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Dn3neTnQPnY/SgxEKZ3hzLI/AAAAAAAAACw/yNKxmvY1GAM/s320/buffnialogo.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335714604060363954" /></a><br /><br />For the past two years I have worked at the YMCA Buffalo Niagara. Here I have done many of things. I was a strength instructor for the first year and this previous year I became a personal trainer. I am also a Growing Up Fit instructor. Growing Up Fit is an innovative weight management program for children ages 7-15 years old and their families. It consists of an initial week of pre-testing, 8 weeks of education and exercise and a final week of post testing. I have also volunteered at many of the Teen Nights hosted by the YMCA with my recent one being back in April. I really enjoy going to the teen nights and spending time with the kids. We play basketball, go swimming, go lift weights in the free weight area, and do many other fun things. I have built some strong relationships with some of the kids and I look forward to going back every time. It's interesting how all the different things I do at the YMCA relate to being a physical educator and to the New York State Physical Education Standards. As a personal trainer I am demonstrating standard 1b by showing my clients how to design personal fitness programs to improve cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, and body composition. Being a Growing Up Fit instructor and a physical educator go hand in hand together. As a Growing Up Fit instructor I am showing kids the skills to establish and maintain physical fitness and maintain personal health. I'm providing them with a safe environment and providing them personal and community resources where they could engage in physical activity. I look forward to continuing my work at the YMCA and building strong relationships with the people there.Matt's PEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02922007274283839516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515443073802588608.post-65982324279333902132009-05-13T12:21:00.000-07:002009-05-14T11:00:37.933-07:00Can video games but fun and educational?Here are three games at that are fun and educational! All three games incorporate diabetes education into game play. I think this is great way to educate kids because kids love games and spend a lot of time playing them so why not use that time into learning valuable, important information.<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://www.escapefromdiab.com/">ESCAPE FROM DIAB</a></strong><br /><br />Escape from Diab is a fun game that gets your brain waves following. There are three mini games you can choose from to play on the website: Memory Game, The Warehouse, and Five in a Row. Memory game is a card memorization game using the characters faces. The Warehouse is just like Tetris and Five in a Row is a game where you have to get five boxes in a row that are the same color. Even though the games don't relate to diabetes the story that led up to the game play was very interesting and got me excited to play before I knew what the game was. If you want to play the real game you need the program to do so. The story is about an athletic boy named Deejay who is on the track team. One day he wakes up in a dark, dirty town called Diab. He was going to get arrested until Delinda and her friends come and save Deejay. Diab is ruled by Kind Etes and he is withholding exercise and proper nutrition from the citizens of Diab. As a result of this they are overweight and out of shape. Since Deejay knows a lot about exercise and nutrition he is going to help Delinda and her friends get in shape so they can escape from Diab and go to the Golden City. I think if the story mentioned diabetes a little bit more and it was involved in the game play it would be more helpful in learning the topic.<br /><br /><object height="344" width="680"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pbGHJYSaoXM&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pbGHJYSaoXM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://office.ranj.nl/grip/">GRIP</a></strong><br /><br />Grip is a fun, easy game that almost all kids in elementary school can play. There are two different games you can play, Mission Possible or Kaboom! Mission Possible is just like Super Mario where you have to run, jump, and crawl over hazzards while making your journey. You have to keep your blood sugar at an appropriate level so along your way you have to grab food and other kind of insulin to keep from your blood sugar level falling too low. If your blood sugar level falls too low the screen becomes blurry and just like in real life it becomes hard to function. Kaboom is a memorization game where you have to remember where the right tools are because your disarming a bomb. If you keep picking the wrong tool it the bomb is going to Kaboom! I thought they did a good job at incorporating diabetes with their game especially Mission Possible. People with diabetes experience this all the time and need to have things on them like food and insulin so they don't get disoriented and possibly pass out. I think this game is helpful when learning about the topic of diabetes.<br /><br /><object height="344" width="680"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ERgusCmGr84&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ERgusCmGr84&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://themagigame.net/">THE MAGI AND THE SLEEPING STAR</a></strong><br /><br />This game is about a boy named Oz who is a descendent of a powerful line warrior-wizards known as The Magi and will have to master his powers in order to save the world. He must first learn how to master his blood sugar seeing he has just been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes before he can master his powers. Oz must venture in the enemy world and defeat the king. By learning to manage his diabetes by having a balanced blood sugar level and eating healthy he gains more power. When his blood sugar becomes more balanced, the power of this spells increase. The more conscious Oz is of his diabetes the better off he is and the greater chance he has of defeating the king. I think they did a great job incorporating diabetes with this game. Just like in real life you can be a hero but if you don't take care of your diabetes you will not have the strength to do anything. I liked how they focus on eating healthy because eating healthy and living a good lifestyle is your biggest obstacle when dealing with diabetes. I think this game is helpful in learning about the topic of diabetes.<br /><br /><br /><object height="1080" width="600"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/SQOfo_RwHCc&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/SQOfo_RwHCc&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#cc33cc;">CHECK OUT THIS SIDE SHOW OF SOME SCREEN SHOTS FROM THESE AWESOME GAMES!!<br /></span></strong><br /><br /><div id="__ss_1434785" style="WIDTH: 425px; TEXT-ALIGN: left"><a title="Game Shots" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 12px 0px 3px; FONT: 14px Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; TEXT-DECORATION: underline" href="http://www.slideshare.net/mattyho/game-shots?type=powerpoint">Game Shots</a><object style="MARGIN: 0px" height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=presentation111-090514091935-phpapp02&stripped_title=game-shots"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=presentation111-090514091935-phpapp02&stripped_title=game-shots" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><div style="FONT-SIZE: 11px; PADDING-TOP: 2px; FONT-FAMILY: tahoma,arial; HEIGHT: 26px">View more <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: underline" href="http://www.slideshare.net/">presentations</a> from <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: underline" href="http://www.slideshare.net/mattyho">mattyho</a>.</div></div><br /><br />Here is a <a href="http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=djsnqvx_29cszhnzhf">lesson</a> and a <a href="http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=djsnqvx_23hb37p5hp">game or assessment </a>I created for kids who are in 2-4 grade showing them what the healthy foods are and what category they go in.Matt's PEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02922007274283839516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515443073802588608.post-55659892892700788542009-05-12T11:05:00.000-07:002009-05-12T19:03:09.997-07:00Brain Gains!Here is an impressive story covered by <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/special_feature/brain_gains/">CBC news</a> that took place in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. You could locate Saskatoon on a map by looking right above North Dakota and in the lower part of Canada.<br /><br />This is an <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/video/popup.html?http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/news/features/leishman-brain090422.wmv">interesting story </a>about an 8th grade teacher who works at City Park Collegiate and got permission to conduct a study involving exercise in her classroom. She got this idea from a Dr.Stark who wrote a book which explains how exercise can be the best way for students to learn. The whole idea is that if students perform at least 20 minutes of <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/special_feature/brain_gains/city_park_school_results.html">aeorbic activity</a> a day there performance in subjects like <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/special_feature/brain_gains/deskercise.html">math and reading </a>will increase tremendously. When you increase your heart rate, brain impulses turn on in the front of your brain that controls behavior which helps in the classroom. I found this news piece very interesting because I never thought they would of seen the improvements they saw. I always knew that exercise helped manage stress but I didn't know it had such an impact on other academic areas. This is great for physical education programs because once more people see how physical activity benefits other academic areas they will be more likely to keep these programs in there curriculum and even increase the use of them. <a href="http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=djsnqvx_19gkrm2bd4 ">Lab D</a> - <a href="http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=djsnqvx_20gz4rzshp ">golf</a>. <br /><br />Mrs. Cameron was not involved in the experiment because it was just a study of 8th grades to see if exercise would promote learning. It wasn't to see if her learning improved. She also has to supervise the students while there on the treadmill. The <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/special_feature/brain_gains/city_park_school_results.html">outcomes of this program </a>were astonishing. Not only did there academic performance increase there fitness levels increased as well. There push ups and sit ups increased over 200%, sit and reach increased 21%, and there BMI decreased by 5%. There fluency increased 121% and there comphrension increased 230% on the GORT-4. There reading increased 27% and there writing increased 33% on the K-TEA test. There math scores increased 17% on the K-TEA test. <br /><br />These outcomes are similar and different to the New York State Physical Education Standards in some ways. Throughout the study they were demonstrating standard 2a- demonstrate responsible personal and social behavior while engaged in physical activity. Every student was respect and aware of each others safety at all times. They also demonstrated standard 1 - have the necessary knowledge and skills to establish and maintain physical fitness,participate in physical acitivty, and maintain personal health. You can see this through there increased fitness levels by there increases in push ups and sit ups. They are different in that they really did demonstrate standard 3 - unserstand and be able to manage their personal and community resources. Even though they have equipment for them at school, they weren't provided with resources where they could do the same things outside the classroom. <br /><br />There is much talk of about physical education having regents requirements in New York State. I think this is a great idea because it not only sets standards for the students but from my experience students try harder and put more effort in regents required classes. As you seen from the video above, too many kids are just sitting around and not being physically active in class. Some of those kids are standing around not because they don't like what the class is doing but because they don't know how to do it. By setting these standards every kid will have the opportunity to learn new things that can last them a life time.Matt's PEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02922007274283839516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515443073802588608.post-4319023517304662652009-04-23T18:36:00.000-07:002009-04-26T18:56:19.454-07:00Is that Tiger Woods?<OBJECT class=BLOG_video_class id=BLOG_video-73949434f5703edc height=266 width=320 contentId="73949434f5703edc"></OBJECT><br /><br />Wow! This semester really flew by. Looking back on everything I think I have made many improvements. I remember when I first taught I wasn't really confident and as a result of that I wasn't <a href=" http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=djsnqvx_8ghpqqvf8">enthusiastic</a> and didn't project my voice. Every time I taught I tried to be bring a lot of excitement to the class because when you are excited your students will be excited and therefore will be open to new things.One important thing I learned and will use every time I'm teaching is <a href="http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=djsnqvx_17fdggpdgs">providing feedback </a>to your students. The more you can give and the more specific the feedback is the better job you are doing as a physical educator. It's amazing to see how your students respond when you provide them positive feedback compared to negative feedback. When you are positive they are open to your suggestions. When you are negative they get defensive and tune you out, they also get discouraged and want to quit. That is why when you give negative feedback make sure you follow that by saying something that they are doing good.Even though there are still things I need to <a href="http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=djsnqvx_3c9p848fd ">learn and experience </a>I feel like have grown tremendously in 4 months time and I'm excited to see what comes next.Matt's PEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02922007274283839516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515443073802588608.post-36026260674681823482009-03-20T13:14:00.000-07:002009-03-22T09:38:31.996-07:00Boat TuggingToday I taught my second part of Lab C. Things went great, I couldn't of been happier. Even though I had a difficult part of the lesson to teach I feel I handled the class well. After a few instructions I had the class get <a href="http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=djsnqvx_3c9p848fd">right into the activity</a>. Last time I didn't have the scooters ready for the students but this time I had everything set up for them right at their finger tips. I did a better job of keeping my back to the class and keeping all the students in my sight. I realize how important it is to be able to see everything that is going on in case a problem errupts I will be able to see everything that happens. This is good because if there is a series problem or injury I could be liable because I wasn't doing my job of supervising the class. I felt very comfortable the whole time and was very clear with what I expected of the students. I'm being loud and firm with my voice and that is a very important part of being a teacher. Positive feedback is very important in any classroom. It's amazing seeing how excited students get when you give them a compliment, after that you see them putting in more effort and happy to be in the class. Watch me in action. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GyM9OM5hfUI&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GyM9OM5hfUI&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Matt's PEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02922007274283839516noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515443073802588608.post-65974254734382577862009-03-02T19:15:00.000-08:002009-03-02T19:47:17.567-08:00Scootin' Round The GymAfter completing my <a href="http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=djsnqvx_76xvg7phc">first attempt at Lab C</a> I feel that I improved a lot from Lab B. I was more confident and felt at ease in front of the students. I was clear and direct with my instructions and cues which made the lesson go smoothly. Even though I still used some fillers, more practice will help me to eliminate this problem. I was happy to see that the students really enjoyed the instant activity. Since the students enjoyed the instant activity they were excited and anxious to see what I had in store for them during the lesson. I'm looking forward to my next attempt at Lab C because their are a few things I want to touch up on.Matt's PEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02922007274283839516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515443073802588608.post-57813191282643122342009-02-18T18:32:00.000-08:002009-02-18T18:59:37.419-08:00Ok..soFor Lab B we had the task of teaching a section of ultimate frisbee. I chose to teach the students how to execute a long pass againest a defender. This lab we had a microphone hooked up to us so we could record what we were saying. After listening to my dialogue and recording it I was shooked at how many times I used fillers. I must have used the words <a href="http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=djsnqvx_5dvf644c9 ">"Ok" and "so"</a> more than twenty times in a five minute period. After listening to it a couple of times I got annoyed at how many times I said them so I can't even imagine what the students were thinking about me repeating myself. Saying "ok" over and over again makes you sound like you don't know what is going on or that you're not confident in what you're doing and that is the last thing you want to demonstrate to your students. Doing exercises and more practice will help to eliminate how many times I use filler words like "ok" and "so".Matt's PEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02922007274283839516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515443073802588608.post-9346346677273429292009-02-11T15:44:00.000-08:002009-02-18T09:23:15.663-08:00Timing is EverythingAs I watched my second attempt for Lab A I felt that I did a better job than the first time. When I broke it down however, I feel I could and should have done a better job <a href="http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=djsnqvx_4979dv7w7">managing my time</a>. In a three minute lesson, I spent more than half the time giving instructions where the students weren't active. One of my biggest problems was that I gave the students too many cues which not only confused them but also took up more time for instruction and less time for activity. We have a goal to have our students engage in activity for at least fifty percent of the time which I didn't achieve. Seeing students stand around is never a good thing and it's important to keep your students involved and active.<br /><object width="400" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zqTJiy8y-qY&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zqTJiy8y-qY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="295"></embed></object>Matt's PEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02922007274283839516noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515443073802588608.post-11935654904492248242009-02-08T16:12:00.000-08:002009-02-08T16:26:48.692-08:00FeedbackAfter watching the video of my first day teaching I didn't give any feedback to anyone during the lesson. Feedback is good to give because it motivates your students and it lets them know if they are doing the task right. It also important to give specific feedback to certain students. If I'm giving someone some negative feedback it's good to say something positive along with the negative comment to make sure the student doesn't get discouraged. The more feedback you give during the lesson the better off you are.Matt's PEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02922007274283839516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515443073802588608.post-31468902990548852092009-02-04T20:01:00.000-08:002009-02-11T16:06:04.675-08:00Is that me talking?After listening to the video of myself teaching from the first day I recorded my speech and I was a little suprised. Even though the camera was far away and you could really hear the audio that well I still need to project my voice more. When I was speaking I wasn't saying full sentences and used some abbreviated words like "gonna". I also used the word "alright" too much. It's interesting to hear yourself and then it write back what you said, you don't realize some of the things you said and how you said it. I feel that this is a great tool and by recording everything you say you will be able to eliminate some of the unnecessary or incorrect words. I'm excited to do this exercise again and see my improvements. <a href="http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=djsnqvx_2fpn6pjdc">Check out my dialogue! </a>Matt's PEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02922007274283839516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515443073802588608.post-14243710044311323482009-01-23T13:32:00.000-08:002009-01-23T13:49:03.071-08:00Getting back into the swing of things..It is the first day of the spring semester of my junior year here at Cortland and I got right back into the swing of things. It my 255 class I had to teach my fellow students how to perform a certain skill pretaining to football. My instructor video taped me teaching and it was interesting to see my performance. After watching the tape a few times, I realized I have some things I need to improve on. Instead of going over the skill step by step, I dimenstrated what to do and then had the students jump right into the activity which was a mistake. I seen that some of the students looked confused on some of the steps involved in completing the task. What I should have done was have the students perform each step before performing the whole skill and give them feedback and answer any questions they might have had. Also, I only had each student perform the task once which really didn't benefit them. I should have had them perform it at least two or three times so they would get it down right and with repetition they have a better chance of remembering how to perform the task properly. Now that I have seen what I need to improve on it will help me in the process of becoming a good physical education teacher.Matt's PEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02922007274283839516noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515443073802588608.post-38996061236839041392008-11-04T18:09:00.000-08:002008-11-04T18:15:38.520-08:00All good things come to an end...<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Dn3neTnQPnY/SREBtOnKF9I/AAAAAAAAABg/E4x7FYbJ3b4/s1600-h/St.+Marys+11.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264991315900897234" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Dn3neTnQPnY/SREBtOnKF9I/AAAAAAAAABg/E4x7FYbJ3b4/s320/St.+Marys+11.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>From my interactions with the St. Mary’s students I learned that young kids have tons of energy almost all the time. The whole two hours we were there they were all fired up, running around wanting to play. An activity that I felt was appropriate was when we played clean out your room where we were evaluating their motor skills of throwing. It was appropriate because we got to see them throw many of times and the game wasn’t difficult to play. An example of an inappropriate activity was when we played was rock paper scissor tag. We wanted them to skip and gallop back to the line but because of their age and how hyper they are they would just run back. This was inappropriate because we weren’t able to evaluate those motor skills because of the complexity and confusion of the game. Working with the students in the Pre K program at St. Mary’s was challenging. It was challenging because the kids were on different ability levels. Some students motor skills were at an initial stage were others were at a mature stage. It was different from working with the older age students because it took a lot longer and more effort in explaining how to play the games with the younger age students. You really have to have patience when working with the students in Pre K. Even though it takes a lot more patience with working with the younger age children I really enjoyed it because when they do get it and succeed it is a great feeling. The younger students really look up to you and I enjoy being someone’s role model. Some of the fine motor skills I observed in the cafeteria setting at St. Mary’s were the use of their hands when they were putting puzzles together. I noticed they would take different pieces and try to place the pieces together and sometimes when they wouldn’t fit they would use their hands and try to force them together. Also, I would watch them draw and would observe to see if they colored within the lines and also how long it took them to complete the drawing. When they would write their names of their paper, some of the children’s write would be straight and clear where others were sloppy and all over the place. I feel that working on fine motor activities is something we should work on in Physical Education. These fine motor skills you will need to play some of the games in class especially hand-eye coordination games. They have to develop these skills using their hands, finger and eyes in order to play some of the more advanced games. I have developed an insight as to how I want to teach from my experience and interaction at St. Mary’s. I have found that I am more of a laid back teacher but I’m firm and sincere at the same time. I’m not the type of teacher who just tells his students what to do and if they don’t do it right yell or punish the students. I like to be involved in the games and experience some of the fun the students are having. I have patience and I’m willing to take the time to help someone out without getting frustrated. I don’t like to yell but I found I have to be loud enough so you have their attention and know that you are sincere.</div>Matt's PEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02922007274283839516noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515443073802588608.post-65381932806266953572008-11-04T18:06:00.000-08:002008-11-04T18:20:07.947-08:00Games are fun!!<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Dn3neTnQPnY/SRECzJJnzCI/AAAAAAAAABw/xOWeig3EYV4/s1600-h/St.+Marys+70.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264992517025680418" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Dn3neTnQPnY/SRECzJJnzCI/AAAAAAAAABw/xOWeig3EYV4/s320/St.+Marys+70.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>The activities/games that I have utilized so far during the past four labs have been appropriate for the students at St. Mary’s. They have been age appropriate meaning that the games aren’t to advance for the student’s age and skill level. They participated in these games without any major problems. All the students, guys and girls have played and enjoyed them. I try not to make them to challenging to prevent confusion and when they play by the rules you can assess their motor skills easier. Some limitations to the games or activities when using them in the process of assessing motor skills are you can’t have games where there are too many objectives at once because if you do it’s hard to see the motor skill you are looking for because too much is going on. Also, the kids don’t know what you are looking for and because they get so excited they don’t follow the rules so you can’t assess that particular motor skill.</div>Matt's PEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02922007274283839516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515443073802588608.post-61737895100056224262008-10-21T20:14:00.000-07:002008-11-04T18:24:46.537-08:00Reflecting on St. Mary's<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Dn3neTnQPnY/SRED4EsjLYI/AAAAAAAAAB4/b9pwwe9Mz1o/s1600-h/St.+Marys+40.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264993701240974722" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Dn3neTnQPnY/SRED4EsjLYI/AAAAAAAAAB4/b9pwwe9Mz1o/s320/St.+Marys+40.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Some of the difficulties or challenges that I have faced so far at St. Mary’s have been getting the kids involved and focused on playing the games we provide for them. The kids get so excited they start running around and don’t pay attention to your instructions. Some of the games we have introduced have been too advanced for their age group so the games don’t go as smoothly as planned. Also, the attendance is always different. The kids leave at all different times so you might have a game that starts off with ten kids and within two minutes you only have two kids left and then the game becomes hard to play. Ideas or suggestions to resolve the difficulties or challenges are to play better age appropriate games. Make sure that kids starting from Pre k up to grade 5 will be able to play these games without any confusions or problems. You should test out your games before you go to lab so you know it is age appropriate. Also, you can have games on reserve so when a bunch of kids leave and you only have a few remaining you have fun games for just the few kids left to play.</div>Matt's PEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02922007274283839516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515443073802588608.post-40147555080141721212008-10-21T20:07:00.000-07:002008-11-04T18:27:48.905-08:00A third time around....<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Dn3neTnQPnY/SREElVCLkmI/AAAAAAAAACA/_4ml3Xp09Ik/s1600-h/St.+Marys+60.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264994478720782946" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Dn3neTnQPnY/SREElVCLkmI/AAAAAAAAACA/_4ml3Xp09Ik/s320/St.+Marys+60.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>For this lab I observed Student A and Student B. Student A is a six year old boy who is in the first grade. Student B is a five year old girl who is in kindergarten. I watched them go through a creative obstacle course where we watched them perform various skills. We watched them leap, horizontal jump, and slide. Student B is very advanced for her age; she is at a mature level for leap and was also very good at sliding. The problem she has is with her jumps. She never extended her arms forcefully forward and upward, reaching full extension above the head. She also never had flexion of both arms and knees with arms extended behind the body. Student A was not as advanced as Student B. He is good at sliding but has trouble with leaping and jumping. When he leaped he couldn’t take off on one foot and land on the other, also his didn’t have a forward reach with arm opposite of lead foot. When he jumped he didn’t bring his arms downward during landing. He also didn’t extend arms forcefully forward and upward, reaching full extension above the head. He didn’t show flexion of both arms and knees with arms extended behind the body. For this lab I used a couple different teaching strategies. One of them was to get down on one knee where I was at eye level with the students. This was very effective because we had eye contact so when I was explaining what we were doing they were much more attentive. Here the children know you are sincere and they listen better. I also think you the teacher are a lot less intimidating. Here I feel you can really get through to your students.</div>Matt's PEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02922007274283839516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515443073802588608.post-28441529508231744502008-10-21T19:48:00.001-07:002008-11-04T18:40:31.994-08:00PE conference at SUNY Cortland<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Dn3neTnQPnY/SREHjWs3FsI/AAAAAAAAACI/FX_1AJs8Rlc/s1600-h/PE+mini+conference.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264997743343376066" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Dn3neTnQPnY/SREHjWs3FsI/AAAAAAAAACI/FX_1AJs8Rlc/s320/PE+mini+conference.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>On October 9th I attended the Physical Education mini conferenence at SUNY Cortland. I went to Dr. Yang's presentation which I participated in. It was a very interesting presentation. He had stations set up that incorporate physical activity into playing video games. Through the use of new technology you can exercise while playing video games. I played a game of Madden on playstation 3 while i was cycling on a bike. The bike was hooked up to the playstation and in order to play the game you had to peddle the entire time and if you stopped the game would pause, and you couldn't resume the game until you started to cycle again. I was moving the entire time elevating my heart rate while play a video game I enjoy. My game drew a lot of attention by the people observing the presentation and they all seemed to be interested in this new technology. All the students that participated in this presentation were hooked up to heart rate monitors which you could see the readings on a projection screen. It was cool to see how much I was excerting myself while playing the video game as well as the other student participants. I found this mini conference to be very educational and fun.</div>Matt's PEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02922007274283839516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515443073802588608.post-63185011522467565862008-10-07T19:30:00.000-07:002008-11-04T17:48:58.871-08:00Round 2<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Dn3neTnQPnY/SRD7efeihqI/AAAAAAAAABY/6Hgv1D90lM0/s1600-h/St.+Marys+22.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264984465660348066" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Dn3neTnQPnY/SRD7efeihqI/AAAAAAAAABY/6Hgv1D90lM0/s320/St.+Marys+22.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Today we are back for round two at St. Mary's. For this lab I observed student A and student B who are both in the kindergarten at St. Mary’s. Student A is a 5 year old boy, and student B is a 5 year old girl. I observed them both playing the same game and evaluated their skill levels. The first skill I observed was how they ran. Both these students could ran with their arms in opposition to legs, elbow bent, ran with both feet off the ground for a brief period, and their foot placement was near or on line. Student B's nonsupport leg was bent at approximately 90 degrees where student A's was not. When they started to gallop, they both were able to lead with the right and left foot, had brief period where both feet are off the ground, and could step forward with leading foot followed by the trailing foot. As of now both students showed that they had a good understanding of how to run and gallop. As they started hopping, I noticed that student A couldn’t hop at all. His arms were all over and he could not hop on one foot. Meanwhile, student B mastered every component of the hop. I don’t think student A's inability to hop has to do anything with his age or gender, I just think someone needs to take the time to show him how to do it correctly. One of the teaching strategies that I observed were showing the students how to gallop and hop through playing a game. They were shown to students in the Pre K. They were taught by the Cortland students who demonstrated a proper gallop and hop. The effect was that all Pre-K students paraded around the gym galloping and hoping. This strategy was effective for the students that knew how to properly hop and gallop, but for the others who didn’t know how to properly hop or gallop it was not. Another strategy they could have used was to take the kids that couldn’t hop or gallop out of the game and show them step-by-step how to gallop and hop. The past two labs have been a lot of fun and I'm really looking forward to coming back next week!</div>Matt's PEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02922007274283839516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515443073802588608.post-17475035943895320182008-10-07T19:17:00.000-07:002008-11-04T17:42:20.224-08:00It All Begins..<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Dn3neTnQPnY/SRD5u9A6R-I/AAAAAAAAABQ/PmPEZ4rViMk/s1600-h/St.+Marys+12.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264982549443790818" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 283px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 272px" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Dn3neTnQPnY/SRD5u9A6R-I/AAAAAAAAABQ/PmPEZ4rViMk/s320/St.+Marys+12.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Today was my first day at St. Mary's elementary school. It was a lot of fun getting to know some of the kids and watching them play different games. The differences in motor behavior and social between the students are easily observed. The biggest difference I observed where the motor behaviors of the Pre K compared to the older students which ranged up to about fifth grade. The Pre K students would get really excited about a certain game and run off and start screaming before you would even start the game. They would get too excited and be distracted easily. The older students would listen to the rules and then go play. I think grade level has more of an influence on motor behavior rather than gender or ability. You can definitely see a maturity in motor behavior with the older students compared to the students in Pre K. The fine motor activities that I observed watching the students were their ability to run, kick a ball, and eat a snack. I witnessed the older students approximately in the fifth grade play kickball. After watching the way they ran to the bases compared to the Pre K running during a game of tag it was obvious there was a difference in their skill levels. You could clearly see most of the kids in the Pre K were at an initial skill level of running, except for a few who were at an elementary skill level. Most of the fifth grades were at an elementary level with the exception of a couple that could be considered at a mature level of running. The thing that stuck out to me the most was how long it took the Pre K to eat there snacks compared to the older students. From my observations I would have to say that the differences in how they performed these motor activities was because of age rather than gender or ability. It should be interesting to see how the students perform some other motor activities in the next couple of weeks. </div><br /><div></div><br /><div><br /></div>Matt's PEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02922007274283839516noreply@blogger.com0