Animoto Video, Republished!

My Animoto Video

Here is a video I made when I was at SUNY Cortland. I have to give the credit to @syangman for the motivation to make an Animoto video. Animoto offers a new way to present information to viewers. Technology like this could motivate kids to make their own videos just as it did for me! Implementing technology into the physical education setting is one way I try to motivate students. Using heart rate monitors on exercise machines can give each individual a personal target. Stepometers can keep students focused on trying to reach 10,000 steps a day. I also have used Dance Dance Revolution to keep students moving and dancing at the elementary level. All of these technologies can help kids achieve a healthy heart for life!

Extra Mile

What a great week before an Easter vacation. I was in the gymnasium subbing four out of five days! After bouncing around classroom to classroom it's nice to finally get back to my roots!


One of the pictures below is a small sided 2v2 basketball game I got the kids into. This got them moving and a lot of touches on the ball. Small sided games make it easier for me to go around and give more students corrective feedback. The second picture shows a student going the extra mile.

 

Educators love the feeling of an individual who really wants to learn something. Throughout the period the student above focused on practicing his left handed lay-up. After the class had been dismissed, he asked me what he could do to get better. First, I gave him a couple of drills he could do at home. I then explained to him that doing a left handed lay-up is no different than a right handed one. If a student knows how to do a strong right handed lay-up, he has the tools and knowledge to do an equally strong left handed lay-up. Together we broke down the skill step by step. All he needs now, is practice!

Remember, you don't need a gym to get kids moving. While subbing in the classroom I encourage physical activity by taking a "movement break" after a long period of sitting. This helps kids stay focused and engaged. Some exercises include jumping jacks, running in place, airplane scales, and tree scales!

Motivating or Bullying?

What do you think? Is the previous video motivation? I highly doubt it. THIS LINK will take you to a CNN article on coaches and bullying players. It is safe to say that knowing the signs of a bully and someone who has been bullied, will help prevent further incidents. The CNN article does a good job of explaining some signs and the video should give you a good visual aid.
Coaching requires a vast amount of knowledge, ranging from  physiology, anatomy, psychology and even motivational techniques. When motivating an athlete you must look at the individual, how do they respond to different tactics. Are they extrinsically motivated or intrinsically? What is going on in a person's life that affects their level of competition? Coaches must find creative ways to motivate everyday. It could be with recognition of a specific skill, changing of the activity or letting the players have input. There are many easy tips to keeping students/athletes motivated. There are 21 ways in THIS article.

Lincoln Ave Yard Games

 During one of the final weeks of the school year I started a recreation unit for the students at the school I was student teaching at. Couldn't ask for better timing either! The weather stayed nice for the entire week, so of course I kept reminding students to go home and play these games with parent/guardians and get outside! In fact we had an activity day the friday after state testing and a few of the activities we played in class were part of that day. Kid's actually questioned me why we were doing this unit and I hope they understood my response.
I told them, these are activities that you can participate in for an entire lifetime! Activities included; washers, bean bag toss, shuffle board, ping pong, mini putt and bowling. If you drive down Lincoln ave in Cortland on a warm spring afternoon, you will see yards packed with college students, enjoying the sunshine and playing these games.





















Although this experience is racing toward the end, I feel the things I have learned will stay with me for a lifetime. I have become a better teacher because of my host teachers and the programs they have instilled in their districts. I can only hope that the students whose lives I have been a part of remember me in a positive way and continue their lives as physically educated individuals.

Last week I had the opportunity to show students that people with disabilities can do a lot of the same activities we do in PE. We were in our last days of team handball, so I decided to throw a curve ball at the students by simulating different kinds of disabilities.  After the class was over we had a discussion about how the students felt when playing. Some of them felt scared and didn't feel comfortable, especially with the visual disability. The disabilities we included were students with mobility, visual and cognitive impairments. The students who had a mobile disability were on scooters with students assisting them by pushing on their backs. The cognitive disability was simulated by having specific students only pass backwards upon receiving the ball. For the visual impairment we had students wear blindfolds and use a guide (above). A lot of the times, people who had a disability never got the ball! This is quite normal in a PE class and that is what I was trying to change! After our discussion, students seem to be more understanding of students with disabilities and how it can affect everyone in the class. I explained that just because the students have a disability does not mean they can't play the game. I also wanted the students to understand that when we play the game, everyone likes to be included. Students with disabilities should have every opportunity everyone else has, and in my class, they will!

Plan Plan Plan

          Today, May 23rd, I completed the appendix of our "notebook" that involves attending an extracurricular activity. This activity can not be an athletic practice, which makes sense because it forces us to learn about another department of the school, while also giving us an opportunity to see the forces behind these before and after school activities.
          When you do your job for a while you kind of get the feeling of what you expect from which class or which extracurricular activity you're doing. I was trying to attend an activity that involved the schools choir unfortunately it didn't work out this way. Instead I was able to stay after school for a day of intramural's. There were only a few other students who showed up today though so their was some improvising, as always. The kids decided they wanted to play Kan-Jam since there weren't enough players to play Ultimate Frisbee. This new game seems to be a hit with every age! From middle school to college students. Even if their not getting their heart rate up, at least the students are getting sunlight and little exercise, both important to having a good day, what happens when you have seven good days in a row? That's a good week. Keep going and see what you end up with!
          It's always interesting to see the behavioral problems that occur during the school day. A teacher can almost be in eight different moods a day based on the class he/she just had. Each class is treated differently based on how they've acted throughout the week, for example; whether you've covered the same material as the last class. The time a student gets to do an actual activity depends on so many things that are out of a teachers control. A student walking out of the door as the bus is driving away, two students tipping the canoe just a little too far three minutes before the bus leaves. Some things you just don't know will happen and you handle them as they come. But as teachers we are always prepared for the worst and ready to jump into action, getting the students to do a self rescue and get to shore in a timely manner all of a sudden was our top objective. And it's always nice to say we still made it back before the late bell rang!

Bouncing Fish

Well yesterday I started observing at the high-school and what a difference it is! The activities we are doing are for the 11th and 12th graders mostly, while only working with the freshmen and sophomore's for one period a day. The juniors and seniors get the option to do a fishing and kayaking unit or a field games unit (kan-jam, bocce, washers, ladder toss). My host teacher is doing the fishing and kayaking unit this week along with track and field. It's unbelievable the resources the high-school has. They may not have a pool but they get permission from the Village to use a pond about a mile from the school. This was no easy thing to accomplish either, my host teacher, his colleague and myself got to school thirty minutes earlier than usual to get the kayaks and canoes where they needed to go. My host teacher has a great way of controlling his students, they knew exactly what was expected of them before we got to the boats, they were prepared for anything, as it should be when you have a risky unit like this one. A shout out to SUNY Delhi for having a great Outdoor Adventure Rec class and teaching me to kayak down the good ol' Delaware River. Its nice to say during this experience I've had a no problem having an ample amount of useful information and tips to provide for the students.

              A couple of the periods we were fishing on the same pond, although I haven't taken a fishing course in college it's something I know how to do from being addicted to fishing for a couple of summers during high-school. And I know how difficult it could be to be patient while fishing, having problems with so much waiting myself I decided to make it interesting, each student that caught a fish got a bouncy ball! I thought it might give them incentive to get there a little quicker the next class and try to catch something. Unfortunately towards the end of the day I ran out of bouncy balls! Still, it's great to see a Physical Education class doing these activities that can be done for the rest of their lives. Now when the students of this class have kids of their own they can teach them how to fish properly, and all of this is because of important teachers like the one I am trying to be. Time is the only thing I am waiting on.