Timing is Everything

As 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 managing my time. 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.

Feedback

After 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.

Is 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. Check out my dialogue!

Getting 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.

All good things come to an end...

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.

Games are fun!!

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.

Reflecting on St. Mary's

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.