EVERY BODY CAN!

Recap of 255

Practical Volunteer Experience

For class we had to have a minimum of 10 volunteer hours. I did my volunteer hours on a make a wish foundation J.V. lacrosse tournament, helping coach a high school club team, and helping out with a graduate study using idance. The Make a wish foundation J.V. lacrosse tournament was run by the lacrosse team on October 11th in the stadium complex. It went from 9am to 4pm and included teams from all over upstate and even a team from Canada. It was a great success and we raised a lot of money for a great cause. I myself worked the clinic part of the tournament where players would come in between games to work on shooting, dodging, and other aspects of the game that we drilled.

My coach has started a club team called the CNY Arrows. It is a team composed of central New York players that practice during the fall and will be playing in tournaments over the summer. I went to their practice for 2 hours and worked with the midfielders on taking face-offs and timing the whistle. It was a great experience because I love to coach and this gave me an opportunity to work with some high school athletes on improving their game.

The last thing that I did was the graduate study on December 9th, from 8-10pm. This was a study being done using an awesome new gaming system called idance. It involves many wireless mats that students can dance on while following arrows displayed from a projector onto the wall. It is similar to DDR but allows up to 30 students to participate at once. I wasn't able to participate in the actual study due to conflicting times for the first part of the study on Monday, but I managed to help in other ways. I helped do thing such as take pictures while the study was going on and help clean up at the end. Overall my volunteer hours were an experience that I was more than happy to complete.

Stride and Glide

For Lab D, our final lab, I taught my lesson on Ice Skating. This was something that was completely out of my element, but I am so glad that I had the opportunity to teach in this type of environment. Although we had a varied range of skill levels everyone did very well and seemed to really enjoy the lesson on ice. I wanted to add a component into the lesson that I thought would make the students really want to become better skaters. I put a picture of Coach Gordon Bombay, from the movie series "The Mighty Ducks", and told them that he is a personal friend of mine and he would like us to start training so we can come play on his team. This is just a little something that everyone seemed to like which grabbed the attention of the class and made them want to become better skaters. You can read every word that I spoke in my lesson on the verbal transcript form I have completed.

I really enjoyed teaching on the ice because it was different and brought a new challenge to the table for not only me, but for the students as well. Teaching on the ice was a challenge for me due the fact that I was on skates myself trying to make it around to everyone. I consider myself a decent skater, but when you have to watch everyone and manage all the aspects of the class, it becomes a little harder to get around to everyone. I feel like I am learning how to really manage the class in all environments and also adapting to situations that I may not have planned for.


I felt that the students really enjoyed the activities and were having fun with the lesson. Since we had students falling from time to time I am glad that I taught the proper way to fall and to get up off the ice. This was something that the students can use whenever they go ice skating, and I was glad to have taught them that. One thing I wish I could have done better was get around to more students and have the time to give them specific feedback on what they were doing right and wrong. Although I got to a good amount of the class, if I had a little more time I would have gave more feedback to the students. I feel feedback is one of the most important parts in a lesson because it allows you to tell the students how they can better themselves, and to me that’s essential. In those 15 minutes there are many things that you have to make sure you include. In the future, when I have a little more time, I hope to be able to give that feedback to the students. Overall I am very pleased with how the lesson went and I would enjoy teaching on the ice in the future. You can see how I managed the class time in my time coding sheet and you can also check out my activity progressions sheet that I have created. I have posted my lesson plan for everyone to see how I set up my activities and planned the lesson.

Other Documents:
-Self C9
-Content Development

Cookin' Some Sqaush

On Friday we were down in the squash courts cooking it up. We were all chefs for a day and our meal to cook was a hot plate of squash. We had to cook this squash smoothly and with finesse just like we would have to play the sport of squash, with finesse. I think that by me bringing in the real squash in the beginning of the lesson and Mike bringing in the cooked squash at the end really gave the lesson an edge. Something as little as bringing a vegetable into a lesson can put a smile on some faces and make the lesson much more enjoyable.
Since this was our international lab we had to give a little background and history behind the sport of squash which seemed to really grab the attention of the class. I talked about squash starting in England in the 1890’s and also talked about the godfather of the sport, Hashim Kahn. Giving a little history and knowledge of the sport you are playing seems to have an impact on how much students listen and what they get out of the lesson. This is another little aspect of a lesson, like bringing in the squash, which can have a big impact on the overall success.
It seems as though now when I am teaching it is becoming more natural to include things such as a hook or a safety statement without having to go down the list in my head. Compared to earlier in the year, it was always a memorization game to get everything said. Now I feel more confident in my teaching and I am able to include most aspects of the lesson a little easier. I am very pleased with how the lesson went and how I feel when I am teaching. I still compare it back to day one of class when we taught for the first time. You can see there is a night and day difference in my quality of teaching from then until now in which I am very happy with. I have completed a time coding form to give you an idea of how much time is spent on each part of the lesson that I taught. I was unable to complete a feedback analysis form because when I gave feedback I was up on the observation deck of the squash courts. There are also many progressions that we covered in order to allow students complete more challenging tasks. Glance at them and also check out my lesson plan and don’t forget to watch the video above of the lesson.

An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away

This past Friday we continued teaching in class where each student received six minutes to teach. Continuing our unit of ultimate Frisbee I taught a game called "Apples". This activity consisted of breaking up into groups of three having a thrower and two receivers. The thrower was to release the Frisbee using the overhand throw and the receivers had to try and come up with it. The receiver that gained possession of the Frisbee became the thrower and now had one "apple". We played this game for a few minutes to see how many "apples" everyone could get. After everyone seemed to be getting comfortable I threw in a little challenge. Now you could only catch with one hand and that one hand had to be their non-dominant hand.

This activity was a lot of fun and really kept the interest of all the students. I think the most important thing in an activity is that the students have fun, and with this activity everyone was smiling and having fun. I'm feeling like each time I teach I feel more and more comfortable. I felt like I explained the activity clearly and had a good demonstration. This time it was a lot easier teaching something that I was prepared for compared to our first lab where I wasn't prepared at all. One thing I may have done a little different is to have everyone throw the Frisbee starting on the same side of the gym rather than a staggered setup. Also I may use a whistle as my signal for attention. Although I have a good gym voice it is still no match for a loud echoing gym. In order to keep track of the feedback I am giving to the students I have completed a feedback sheet. I also have written out every word from my lesson to see exactly what I am saying while I teach. Listen