St. Mary's Lab 5: Easter Theme

In this weeks lab at St. Mary's the theme was Easter! We had to assess two students on two skills which were dribbling the basketball and kicking a ball. We were looking to see if the students could demonstrate these skills while performing the correct criteria during the games. My group was the special projects group, we cleaned the closets and made sure that everything was organized in each of them. This is important to do because without the closets being organized we wouldnt be able to find any of the materials that we need to play the games that we teach to the students. This picture is a picture of the group song and dance that our group did with the students, it was called the Bunny Hop and it was a simple dance that the kids seemed to enjoy a lot! 

Lab 4: Dinosaur Train

In this weeks lab at St. Mary's the theme was Dinosaur Train which is a popular television show in the air right now on PBS. The skills that we were concentrating on this week were the overhand throw and catching a thrown ball, many of the students had some trouble doing both of these skills but there were a select few that were able to perform these skills well. Our class looked at two students a male and a female both who are in kindergarten and 6 years old, and assessed their overhand throw and catching skills. John the male student while throwing was establishing a downward arc of the throwing arm which initiated the windup but had trouble performing the other 3 tasks of the overhand throw. In assessing his catching skills it was clear that he had no trouble except for controlling the ball with his hands. The female student Alice performed every task in the throw except for the follow through diagonally across the body, but that can easily be fixed with a little coaching. Her catching skills were tremendous, she performed each task well and put them all together to catch the ball successfully and with correct fundamentals. My group was in charge of the Pre-K section for the afternoon, I had a great time working with these students. My job was to come up with a craft for the students to work on I printed off pictures of different types of dinosaurs and cut them out for the kids to color, I also got a poster board and wrote "Dinosaur Train St. Mary's" in colorful letters and they were able to tape their colorings on the board. Even though it was simple the children loved it and had a great time coloring in their dinosaurs! 

My Professional Online Portfilio

I am very excited to be featuring an online portfolio to my repertoire. This will only help me stand out from the outstanding number of Physical Education majors around the country when going for a job interview. I am thankful that Professor Yang is so invested in our success and always making us try our hardest and get that extra step up on some of our competition out in the work field. So hopefully this along with many other things will help me get to where I want to be in the future.

St. Mary's Lab 3 Western Theme

At this weeks Lab 3 at St. Marys my group the Hopscotch Heroes were the gym group again so we got to teach the children our games with a western theme. We dressed up as cowboys and cowgirls, and in my opinion I thought everybody looked great and the costumes were awesome. While teaching my game called Sherrifs and Deputies I used some different techniques that I hadent used in previous labs. I projected my voice showing the children that I was the teacher and that they should listen to me, another technique that I used was to not suggest the game that we were going to play but rather tell the students that we were playing sherrifs and deputies. By doing both of these differently thet students payed attention and in turn cooperated with me and my game a lot better. The kids were able to perform the skills of leaping, horizontal jumps, and sliding pretty well, but the leap started to turn into a run not a leap. This was a fun lab and I enjoyed working with the kids a great deal in Mondays lab!

St. Marys Lab 2

During this weeks lab, Lab 2, my group the Hopscotch Heroes was the gym group so we were the ones teaching the students a game and the rest of the class was too evaluate two students and how they performed three locomotor skills. Running, Galloping, and Hopping were these skills that the students had to perform, many of the students had some trouble doing the galloping and hopping the running wasnt difficult because many students are able to perform that skill at an early age. I had a good time dressing up as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the lab and I believe that the kids had a great time because they saw us in costume and to my surprise they knew a lot about the Ninja Turtles. I think that the students had a great time and got a good workout when we taught them this week and I am looking forward to teaching them more games and having fun doing it!

Hopscotch Heros: Chapter 2 Overview Presentation

St. Mary's Lab 1

At this weeks lab1 at St. Mary's I had a great time working with the students. They were very cooperative with the games that we played, although there were a few reluctant students who wanted to do their own thing at first but once they saw how much fun the other kids were having they jumped right in. I taught my tag game to the students who seemed to enjoy it very much, and I do recognize that I did some things that could have been improved on. Speaking loudly to the students is very important so they recognize that you are an authority figure and so the kids can understand what you are saying and arent confused by the game. If the students are not sating focused you must do something to get back their attention by asking them to clap 1 time if they can hear you or something along those lines. Perhaps the most valuable thing that I learned at this first lab is that the kids do not have very long attention spans, so you have to be quick but clear in your directions, because we know that all they want to do is play.

Chapter 1 Summary of Fundamental Skill Development and Assessment

Fundamental skill development is probably one of, if not the most important aspects of physical education and our profession as a whole. Children must learn how to perform physical movements and skills early on in life and in school, so as they progress in their lives and their athletics they have the basics down pat to provide a base for them to improve on. This will also provide the students with a healthy lifestyle to follow and live by from the beginning of their physical education career. We must always remember as educators that what we are teaching our students is appropriate for their age-group, if a skill is too advanced for the student they will not want to particpate and will be turned off by what you are trying to teach them. This can be harmful to the their future because of the educators error even if you do not think it is, it is vital that we know what and how we are educating our students on. Our teaching is what shows in the students performance in class, athletics, and in having fun with friends.

Assessment is also very important to the success of a physical educator and of the student. If you prepare your students well enough and are able to teach them in a easy simple manor that will allow for your students to understand, they will test well. Assessment will show you if you are doing a good job at what you do, the students success rides on you and how well you taught. Of course not every student is as gifted as the next in regards to physical ability but if you see that the child is trying their hardest and shows room for improvement then you might very well be doing a good job at teaching them. Once again if the student performs well in class and on an assessment they will take that with them in everything that they do and will give them a healthy lifestyle in the long run.

Fundamental Skill Development

Winter Break and Creating A Blog

I am very excited to have created my first blog, it was a little confusing at first but I believe that it will allow me to become a better educater as I pursue my teaching career. I am looking forward to posting on this blog as well as reading posts from other PE majors and people related to the subject.

Over the break I did a few things that related to physical education, I went to my old high school and coached my old baseball team. I was a coach in the weight room teaching the proper technique and work outs related to the sport of baseball. Also I helped coach at the local indoor facility that allows for our team to practice in the offseason by providing them with a large turf are to field ground balls, have a catch, or work on their pitching. As well as cages to work on hitting, I helped out on all aspects of the game over the break. Myself, I played hockey at least 3 times a week on the street as well as roller. I worked out with the baseball team when I was not helping out with the student athletes.