Thinking about the Past

I got thinking about the second time I taught in class. I remember thinking at the time about how much I thought I had improved from the first time I had taught the class. We tried to make sure that the class had more activity time and less time standing around and listening to us. I also went around making sure I gave feedback to the students and tried to help them perform the self defense move correctly. I tried to keep my body positioned so that I was able to view the entire class at a time. I could have taught better by being more prepared to teach the lesson. I could have also had my class enjoy the lesson more if I had seemed excited to be teaching the self defense move. I also find myself not teaching as well when I have to teach with other people. We are all trying to share the responsibilities of teaching the other students and sometimes things are not taught that need to be taught.

Communication

In physical education, it is very important to communicate with your class. First of all, your students need to understand the activities they are about to perform. They also need to know different rules, safety precautions, and your expectations of them. It is important to make sure that you have your students' attention and to make sure that they also understand what they are doing. It would be a good idea to check for understanding from your students before, during, and after you perform an activity. Also, make sure when you are speaking to the class or student, make sure you have them gathered in such a way that they can see you (as well as you seeing them) and that they would be able to see any visual aids you may have. Be sure to speak loud enough so they can hear you as well. Remember, communication is key!

For My Students

As all of my students are aware, we have been taking quizzes through out the Omnikin Ball unit. Most of you are probably patiently waiting to find out what your scores are. I have submitted a link to a document so that you may see the scores on your quizes. I will continually update these scores as you take more quizzes in other units as well.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pNyP43fk-A1-h0d7tWsFwPw&hl=en

Omnikin Ball

I had it completely planned out to play Kin Ball in class today for my lesson. I was very excited, I actually felt calm and ready to teach. Calm went to extremely nervous and rattled quickly. Wow! I now have had the experience of changing a lesson plan on the spot. Thank goodness for being prepared with several activities in a lesson plan. Unfortunately, the large Omnikin ball that was supposed to be provided to me was unavailable. I had to subsitute a large exercise ball in its place. However, this ball was too heavy to play Kin Ball and I also felt that it would be completely unsafe to hit this ball in the air towards other students. I had to quickly change my game plan to include cooperative games for the class. I found it harder to adapt to the new game plan as my visuals were no longer geared toward my lesson. I still showed my Kin Ball video to the class, which seemed to amaze them. And I still taught about the game as the video was playing. From the feedback I received from some of the other students, they thought I handled this change pretty well and still did a good job with my lesson. However, my time flew by quickly and before I knew it, my time was up. In this time, I forgot to do some of the things that I originally planned. The class never received their quiz at the end of the class time and I definately forgot to check for understanding. I was also planning on the students being peer teachers by helping each other serve the Omnikin ball and getting into defensive positions.

I also had a couple of situations arise in class. I think it is much harder to deal with these situations in our setting. I have worked with students while substitute teaching, as well as being a swim lesson instructor and a camp counselor. Situations arise in these settings and I find it easier to take care of. I had poor behavior in class and I thought I did a pretty good job of getting it under control. But when someone has a fake injury, it is very hard to decide what to do. A student was supposed to be choking. But I know through my medical background that he was fine because he was talking, coughing, and breathing. Was I suppose to pretend like he wasn't and act accordingly? Call me crazy, but I think these situations are easier to handle when they are happening for real.

I finished listening to my MP3 and filled out my feedback form. I did a horrible job of giving feedback to the students. I did not really have any specific skills that they were learning that day other than to work as a team and communicate. I originally planned a bunch of different skills with cues, but with the change in the lesson plan, I did not use these. I did a lot of safety reminders and behavior reminders to the entire class rather than giving specific comments to individuals.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcxzvbvf_1cvdpkkfc&hl=en

Time Coding:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcxzvbvf_5fp3gs8f2

Scavenger Hunt

I had never thought about incorporating a scavenger hunt into a lesson plan before. I thought that this activity was a great way to get the entire class moving, make it a competition so everyone is motivated, and allows students to think. Probably my favorite part of the scavenger hunt was when my group sang to a lady in the Pool Side area while doing the Captain Morgan pose. It made me laugh then, and still does whenever I see it on my phone. I think that the clues need to be very specific. We had a disagreement about one of the clues and our team was resourceful and creative when coming up with the answer, yet we did not receive credit. I also think this is an activity for high school students only, unless there are enough teachers and aids to go around with every group of students to make sure nothing happens while they are on their hunts.
In the future, I would consider creating teams like we did for the scavenger hunt. I think it was good for us to make our own flags and a pose to come together as a team. I would consider different ways to allow the team to create some kind of unity before an activity. I also like this type of activity because it forced us to cooperate with eachother, come up with different solutions, and communicate as a team.
Inter disciplinary teaching works only to a certain extent. I could see this type of activity being a real problem in younger students, as they think because they are by themselves, they can misbehave. It is beneficial to the students, because it helps them to learn how to control their behavior and how they appear in the public and without adult supervision at all times.
This lesson kept me active for almost the entire period. I have a period of time that my HR monitor was collecting data before we were actually supposed to start, so it calculated my HR when I was not being active. Once we began the scavenger hunt, my group was running, jogging, or speed walking at all times, except when taking pictures. This allowed me to keep my HR in the higher zone that we want it to be in during a Phys. Ed. class. Most all the drops in my HR were when my group was taking pictures of the scavenger clues we found.

Wheelchair Polo Part 2

I think I was better prepared for teaching the second part of my wheelchair polo lesson. Instead of preparing drills for the class, I made sure I had games for the class to play. I thought they would enjoy class more if they were playing games and learning the different skills at the same time. I found though, that some of the class seemed to be uninterested in the games we were playing. I saw different students not following the directions I gave for the activity. The most common excuse I heard for this situation was that the students thought what I was asking them to do was too hard. I still think it was just one of those days where no one really wanted to put in any effort. However, I should have been better prepared and been able to change the activity or modify it for the students who had decided not to put in as much effort. These are all things that I need to keep in mind for my future students.

Feedback Form:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcxzvbvf_3dp5g2vgd
Transcript:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcxzvbvf_2c5bkd5c4&hl=en

Wheelchair Polo

I took on the challenge to teach my class how to play wheelchair polo. I thought this was a very difficult task because I could not find a single thing on the internet that could help me teach wheelchair polo. I looked at many websites just to try and figure out the rules for horse polo. I wanted to incorporate as many of the horse polo rules as possible into wheelchair polo. I definately think that my lesson could have gone better. I don't think I was prepared well enough to teach. I forgot to give my students a safety statement and I didn't even give them a demonstration of what I wanted them to do. I simply explained the tasks that were expected of them. I could see in a real class where I wasn't teaching my peers, several things going wrong. I could imagine having students hit each other with the pillow poles because of not having a safety statement. I also saw that not having a demonstration, the students were not using the correct form when they were swinging their pole. I think students would have done better seeing exactly how to hit the ball instead of just giving them the cues. I also think I could have done more tasks. Just hitting the ball back and forth to a partner gets old pretty quick. I thought it would be a good challenge for the students to hit the ball down a line and have them try to keep the ball right on the line. I think this was a very difficult task and students easily gave up on it.


Cool Polo Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tqPeeUvNsE