My Prezi

Last day at St. Mary's

I am sad to say that last Wednesday was my last trip to St. Mary's for my 201 class. Unfortunately I didn't get to stay for the whole time either because I had to go to the CAR workshop. However, when I was there it was a blast playing parachute games with the kids. It reminds me of when I was their age and the parachute was my favorite thing to do in class. As soon as they saw it they were so excited, and it made me excited to show them my game and play it with them. I hope to go back to St. Mary's soon, it was a really great experience and I am so thankful that I got to enjoy it and learn about what it is like to work with kids!


Lab Observations

Easter Fun!!

Last week we got to play our Easter games with the students at St. Mary's. Since we had the gym group, we had to make sure our games had a lot to do with the skills that were being assessed, which were dribbling a basketball and kicking a soccer ball. It took a while for everyone to get the assessments done because one of the students who was being watched didn't want to participate in the game (which I noted in my lab observations). Other than that, it was a lot of fun playing our games with the students, and afterwards we even got to go outside which was great too. Next time is our last lab with the students at St. Mary's, so sad it's almost over!

Scavenger Hunt!

Last Wednesday, instead of having a practice lab we were surprised with a scavenger hunt. I have to say that this hunt included more running around than I do at track practice, and I was exhausted afterwards! We had specific clues scattered all around lower campus, and my team started out really well. Unfortunately though, when we came to the end we were greeted by the rest of the teams, and found out that we had lost. Never the less it was a fun time for all, and I was happy to get in some extra exercise!

Practice makes perfect!

Last week in our lab we practiced our games for the Easter theme. It went really well, except that I needed to include more in my game which I named "Steal the Egg". It was the same as Steal the Bacon, just a different name. We aren't going to play the games with the kids at St. Mary's until next week, so I will have plenty of time to tweak my game so that it goes smoothly. Also, today in class we watched our video skits, below is the link to my groups video, "Parent Factors"!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqpEWN1BVpg

Dino-time!

Last Wednesday we went to St. Mary's once again after what seemed like a long time. Since the theme was Dinosaur Train, we played all games which had to do with dinosaurs. However, things didn't run as smoothly as I would have liked. During my game, I had a very hard time keeping the students' attention, so much that their own PE teacher had to step in and tell them to pay listen to my instructions. Once he got their attention, my game went pretty well. I learned a lot after that, for example I should have brought an ipod for music as a cue to start and stop. Also, I should have explained all of the directions of my game before I sent them to their places around the gym. I am glad that this happened though, because it really taught me what not to do next time, and when teaching in my own class. It made me really appreciate that I have the opportunity to go to St. Mary's and learn how to teach young kids! Below are my observations of Lab 4:
Lab Observations

Welcome aboard the Dinosaur Train!

Yesterday in lab we prepared for our next visit to St. Mary's. Since the theme of Lab #4 is Dinosaur Train, which is a television show on pbs kids, our games all had something to do with dinosaurs. Each game was unique, and many incorporated throwing and catching and/or teamwork which I enjoyed. We will not have lab next week unfortunately, but I can't wait until we get to play our dino-games with the kids at St. Mary's!

St. Mary's goes to the West!

Last week at St. Mary's we did our western themed games with the kids. It was a lot of fun and most of us dressed up as cowboy's or cowgirl's. Here are some photo's of me in my western outfit...
I played a game with the pre-K student's called "Obey the Sherriff" in which I started out as the sheriff and all of the student's had to copy all of the movements I made. After that I chose another student to be the sheriff and they got to make up different movements for the rest of the student's to copy. Also, at the beginning of the lab we had to observe two of the Kindergarten student's playing games and look at the way they performed a leap, a horizontal jump, and a slide. My observations can be found in the link below:
To the West!

Cartoons take-two!

Last Wednesday we once again visited St. Mary's. The cartoon theme was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it. Since I was in the special projects group, we colored some flyers and hung them up around the lobby so that all of the parent's could see them as they came to pick up their children. After that, we all went into the gym and played games with the kids which was a blast! At the beginning of lab we each observed two of the kids as they ran, hopped and galloped during the first game. Noting the way that each student performed the actions was interesting and taught me a lot about children of these ages. I can't wait to teach my students the correct form of running, hopping, skipping, etc. so that they may be successful! Here are my lab observations: Lab #2.

Our Chapter 2 Powerpoint

Preparing for the west!

Yesterday in lab my classmates and I played some really fun games. The theme for our lab in 2 weeks is western, so each game had something to do with that. In one of the games, we had to split up into teams and line up on opposite sides of the gym. There were a bunch of balls in the center of the gym and we had to crab walk, squat walk, and bear walk to the center, grab a ball, and then carry it back to our side of the gym. By the end of the game I could barely even make it to our end of the gym I was so tired out! I wish I still had the energy that young kids have to play these kinds of games! Next week we finally get to go back to St. Mary's and play our games for the cartoon theme, can't wait!

Cartoon craziness!

Yesterday in my lab, as a class we played a lot of really fun games. Starting with blob tag, I found myself getting more of a workout than I do at track practice! I even felt like a kid again running around trying my hardest not to get tagged. We also played some other interesting games that I had never played before. My classmates who came up with the games did a fantastic job of explaining them and teaching us how to play them. I hope that the next time we have lab I will get the chance to practice my teaching skills and get some feedback from my peers. I can't wait until we get to actually teach the kids at St. Mary's our games in a week, it's going to be a blast!

On Wednesday I visited St. Mary's once again, but this time I actually made up an activity for the kids to do. Since I was with the preschoolers, I made them outlines of fruits and vegetables to color. They were so cute and they really enjoyed telling me what their favorite fruits and vegetables were. After that we played a memory game with cards containing different kinds of food. They really liked that game and were so excited once they had successfully paired all of the cards. I can't wait to go back to St. Mary's again, next time I will be teaching Kindergarten and 1st grade!

Developing fundamental skills is incredibly important to our profession as physical educators. As stated in the text, our goals as PE teachers are 1. movement skill acquisition, physical activity and fitness enhancement, cognitive learning, and affective growth. Not only is physical education about teaching kids to play sports, it is about teaching them to understand how the body moves and to get the most out of moving correctly in different areas of activity. Teaching them that physical activity and fitness is crucial for a healthy lifestyle is something that must be done. In this chapter, physical fitness was split up into two components: health-related (muscular strength and endurance, cardiovascular endurance, joint flexibility, and body composition) and performance-related (balance, coordination, agility, speed, and power). The three domains of physical education, motor, cognitive, and affective are also important when teaching PE. Here are some pictures of physical educators in action:

(from: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://playactionflagfootball.d4sportsadmin.com/image.aspx%3Fid%3D12%26o%3D419703&imgrefurl=http://playactionflagfootball.clubspaces.com/pagecustom.aspx%3Fid%3D2%26o%3D419703&usg=__DB2aC4N-b-MCQ3_wmYqU_qGy30w=&h=2244&w=2858&sz=1210&hl=en&start=41&zoom=1&tbnid=F5-6UrVvyBPRsM:&tbnh=132&tbnw=173&ei=CntHTaa1DoKKlwfCssSqBA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dteaching%2Bphysical%2Beducation%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D584%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C808&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=564&vpy=238&dur=541&hovh=199&hovw=253&tx=121&ty=59&oei=AHtHTaWuMoH98Abp3OSyBg&esq=3&page=3&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:41&biw=1280&bih=584)


(from: http://qwickstep.com/search/teaching-physical-education.html)


A great website that promotes positive physical education is http://www.pecentral.com/. This site contains information on developmental appropriate lessons for children different ideas on how to teach in a fun and creative way, check it out!

This is my first time blogging, but I think it's a great way to communicate and get my thoughts out. Over break I did a lot of workouts for track, and I helped my brother to get into a lifting routine for football next year. Explaining to him the proper way to work with weights gave me insight as to how I will teach my students in the weight room in the future. I am very excited to see what this class has to offer, and working with kids is something that I am eager to do. I know that after this class I will be much more prepared to teach children and my peers in years to come!