"Waiting for Superman"

Today I went to go see the movie, “Waiting for Superman.” I picked up my buddy, who wanted to go, and headed to the cinemopolis in Ithaca for a bro-date. When we got there, we got our tickets and headed to the theatre. When I sat down I saw a friend of mine from class who was seeing the movie for some extra hours for PED 447, just like myself. It was good to have him there because we both could relate to what was going on in the movie. My buddy that I brought wasn’t so into the movie, he’s a public relations guy. The entire trip for the night was a few minutes shy of 4 hours.


Watching this movie really opened my eyes about American Education and what is going on in our country today. I was alarmed by some of the statistics that were being shown of how bad America is doing in Education. We ranked almost at the bottom of every poll except confidence, which was the only one we were at the top in. Go figure. The movie showed how public schools are failing our students and teachers aren’t working at their best potential. Failure rates are high and some schools are becoming known as “drop-out factories”, because that’s all that’s happening. The movie focused in on a few different students and their journey through public and private schools and then their move to charter schools. These schools are made, but have limited placement in their facility. Some get in and some don’t, but it is an overall an exciting experience to see that people care so much about their education and want what’s best for their children.


Other things like tenure and the dance of lemons were also talked about and have also been taught in PED 470. It was nice to see things we were taught being talked about, in real context in the movie, relating to real life. I feel like this movie should be watched my all teacher candidates before they head out into the schools. It reminds us to always strive for being a great teacher because our children rely so heavily on it. This was a great experience that got me thinking a lot about our education in America. As a future teacher, I couldn’t help but feel motivated even more now, to want to be that “change agent.”

Bowling at Midway Lanes

Today I went down to Midway lanes in Binghamton to volunteer for the Special Olympics bowling tournament. There were around 120 bowlers using 34 lanes. They were broken up into teams and competed against each other. There was one volunteer for every 2 lanes making sure the bowlers bowled in the correct order and took down the scores for each game. Each team bowled two games and had their scores combined for a grand total score for the day. Out of those scores they were placed and received medals at a team ceremony. As the bowlers were called up to receive their medals I placed the medals over their head and shook their hands. They each had the biggest smiles and enjoyed receiving something for their efforts. They were so happy and grateful for what they were able to accomplish.

Having experienced a day like today is something I feel everyone in Physical Education should experience. It was really nice to see something, like bowling, could have such a great impact on someone. These individuals were so excited to be out bowling and competing in an event. The looks on their faces when they would hit the pins was priceless. If they got a strike or a spare, forget it, they were jumping up and down cheering. I would give them a solid handshake or a high five for every time they bowled a strike or a spare, I also gave them to those who didn’t. The support from family, friends, and the organization was also incredible to see. The entire day was 7 hours but it definitely didn't feel like that long. I enjoyed working with these individuals and I am grateful to have experienced such a humbling event.

Special Olympics Adapted Games

On Saturday, October 9th I made the trip back to Long Island for the Adapted games and let’s make a difference day Carnival at St. Joseph's college in Patchogue. The weather was great and there were a ton of participants. When I first got there I met the girl Faith that I have been speaking with over the phone for a while. She was a really nice girl that welcomed me right into the program. I started off at the registration booth checking in all the different agencies and individuals. There were about 15 different agencies from all over the island that came to participate. Most of these agencies consisted of adults with physical and intellectual disabilities. There were some younger participants that were independent and came in with their mother or father to play. After a few hours of registration I became the information desk where I helped direct people and had the opportunity to speak with many of the individuals.
Later on I moved into the gym and observed many of the adapted games being performed. The activities consisted of: bowling, javelin throws, ball throws, bean bag drops, basketball shooting, soccer kicks, batting tee, golf putting, bocce, balloon paddling, tennis, 10m walks, 10m standard wheelchair race, and 10m motorized wheelchair race. It was very active in the gym and there was a DJ playing music in there all day. Everyone was involved in the activities and having a great experience with them. I helped out with them when I could and assisted in equipment management.
I then got a chance to go over to the carnival and take a look around there. They had a huge tent up with all different kinds of food, arts and crafts, music, activities, and free giveaways. They also had a blow up bounce house that many younger participants went in, I was tempted as well. There was a variety act going on that I got to watch with a bunch of the agencies and had a great time doing so. Everyone loved all the events and especially loved that they got to take things home with them. Taking things home made their day and made them so appreciative.
All the participants were split up into two groups. One group spent the morning at the carnival and the other group spent it in the gym. Half way through they got to switch and go to the other section. This worked well so that we didn’t have too many people at the gym or the carnival at one time. At the end I helped clean up and pack everything away for the Special Olympics. I spent 9 hours for this event and it was worth every minute. Overall it was a great day and I am glad I made the trip back home to work with the Special Olympics Long Island Region. I met some great people, the participants and the staff were both very happy I came. It was a great day and I had a lot fun doing it.

Professional Portfolio

NASPE Standard 1
Standard 1- Demonstrates competency in motor skills and movement patterns needed to perform a variety of physical activities.

Scientific and Theoretical Knowledge- Physical education teacher candidates know and apply discipline-specific scientific and theoretical concepts critical to the development of physically educated individuals.

NASPE Standard 2
Standard 2- Demonstrates understanding of movement concepts, principles, strategies, and tactics as they apply to the learning and performance of physical activities.

Skill-Based and Fitness-Based Competence- Physical education teacher candidates are physically educated individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to demonstrate competent movement performance and health-enhancing fitness as delineated in NASPE's K-12 Standards

NASPE Standard 3
Standard 3- Participates regularly in physical activity.

Planning and Implementation- Physical education teacher candidates plan and implement developmentally appropriate learning experiences aligned with local, state and national standards to address the diverse needs of all students.

In this leeson plan for squash, I have demonstrated standard 3 by implementing the neccesary components in my lesson plan. It also shows how squash can be an enjoyable lifetime fitness sport for people of all skill levels to participate in.



In my lesson plan for ice skating, I have demonstarted standard 3 by showing the proper ways to stop and turn while on the ice. Also another developmentally appropriate skill to properly get up off the ice when you fall. Like sqaush skating can be a lifetime fitness activity as well for everyone to participate in this type of physical activity.




NASPE Standard 4
Standard 4- Achieves and maintains a health-enhancing level of physical fitness.

Instructional Delivery and Management- Physical education teacher candidates use effective communication and pedagogical skills and strategies to enhance student engagement and learning.


For the past 3 years I have maintained a health-enhancing level of physical fitness by playing lacrosse for Cortland State. We have a mini fall season and then the full spring season, while also maintaining muscular strngth through out the entire year.



NASPE Standard 5
Standard 5- Exhibits responsible personal and social behavior that respects self and others in physical activity settings.

Impact on Student Learning- Physical education teacher candidates utilize assessments and reflection to foster student learning and to inform instructional decisions.

NASPE Standard 6
Standard 6- Values physical activity for health, enjoyment, challenge, self-expression, and/or social interaction.

Professionalism- Physical Education teacher candidates demonstrate dispositions essential to becoming effective professionals.

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

Take 2

The first day of class was a surprise to all of us. For most of us it was our first times teaching, so many of us were caught a little off guard. Last Friday we had the opportunity to go back to those mini-lessons and teach them over again, or continue on to another lesson. I think everyone felt a little more comfortable this time around. We knew about this and so we were able to prepare a little for it. Although for some reason it always seems like you have to change something one way or another during the lesson. But it was much easier with the heads up.
I decided to continue my football lesson, of catching and throwing, and teach the students how to run a slant route. I demonstrated the route and then had them break up into groups of three and run the route having a quarterback, a receiver, and a defender. The lesson went well and I felt I did a much better job this time around. I was able to see the things that I did better the second time around, like adding an inter task variation to throw with the weak hand. By doing this, it helps make the task a little more challenging and the students seemed to enjoy that. I have created a time coding form to show how much time I spend on management, activity, instruction, and waiting. During my leeson I tried to give feedback to as many people as possible. You can watch this mini-lesson right here.

Time To Teach

After a busy summer, it's great to be back in Cortland. On my first day of the fall semester I walked into EDU 255, never thinking that I would be teaching. Well I was wrong. Everyone taught a 5 minute lesson on whatever skill they wanted to using the equipment that we had. At first I felt a little nervous because I'm still in summer mode and not yet in school mode. This 5 minute lesson exercise quickly put me into school mode and allowed me to teach a mini lesson on catching and throwing a football. In my initial micro-teaching episode, I looked a little better than I had expected, but I definitely need some work. Although I was a little nervous throughout the lesson, I do see excitement and enjoyment while I'm teaching. To convey my interests in helping my students learn, I feel that being enthusiastic and confident are essential in teaching a Lesson. If I look like I'm not into what I'm teaching or aren't sure what I'm saying, chances are the students won't either. To make students want to come back and participate I feel you have to make class comfortable for everyone. When I say comfortable I'm talking about allowing everyone to participate and creating a fun environment. Next lesson I plan to improve my organization of the drills and how I can better use the space in the gym. Overall I was happy with the lesson and I am looking forward to correcting my mistakes. Here is my lesson for you to watch.

Last Visit To St.Mary's

I have really learned a lot about young children through my experiences at St. Mary’s. These young children are very funny and very unexpectable. One second they can have something hurting which causes them to sit out but once a fun game comes around, that has all disappeared and they are fine. I have witnessed this many times. Some activities that I felt were appropriate were ones that involved props and using imaginations to add something extra to the games. It’s amazing how the children respond to these sorts of things. Some activities that were not as appropriate were ones that resembled drills. Most of these games that were similar to drills were not very fun for the children. There was no imagination or creativity and that is what the children love about games.

With the PRE K program the children were much easier to work with because they weren’t as hyper as the older children. It was different with the older children because they would just want to go crazy, and it was hard to keep them organized. I really enjoyed working with the younger children. They listened very well to what you had to say and they had a greater sense of appreciation towards the activities. I also felt that there were many more activities to come up with when you are working with the PRE K.

In the Cafeteria some fine motor skills that I observed were building with the leggos, and drawing pictures. These were the two most creative fine motor skills that I had observed. The children would draw many different things and create many different objects with the leggos. Having children work on these fine motor skills is something that should definitely be worked on in Physical Education. It is very important for children to do activities involving this because it forces them to use their imagination and to strategize what they want to do. These are aspects that carry over into physical activity. Using your imagination and being creative come in handy when playing sports.

From this experience I have been given insight on my individual teaching style. I have found that I like to put myself in the shoes of the students, or simply think like an elementary school student would. I take the activity that I plan on doing and see if I would enjoy from an elementary school students point of view. My teaching style has definitely emerged through my experiences at St. Mary’s. I realized that the most successful games are ones in which the children can relate to, like super heroes or the Easter bunny. So by thinking like a child helps me to see what games will be best. This is how my teaching style has been developed through my experiences and interactions at St. Mary’s Elementary School.

Dribble and Kick

I feel that the activities and games that we have been utilizing so far at St. Mary’s have been for the most part appropriate for the student’s. Every game and activity that we have done with the children in the labs has been very successful. They have made the children interested in playing and also made them move around and get a good workout in. The hardest activity came last week in lab 5 when we had to get the children dribbling and kicking. It is very hard to have a game where you can see these skills being done correctly by the children. It seemed more of a drill than anything but we were able to assess the children easily with the zig-zag soccer. It may not have been the best game but it helped our class in assessing the movements.

Some limitations to games involve taking the movement in the game and having the students perform them where that is the only thing they are doing. For instance if you have a game that involves the movement of dribbling, you may want to have the student dribble stationary instead of on the run. This allows the people assessing to get a clear look at what is being performed. It may not be as fun for the children but like I said before it helps the observers get a good understanding of the movements being performed.

Can You Catch and Throw?

At St. Mary’s I have definitely faced some challenges and difficulties. What I am proud of is how I have found ways to overcome them. One challenge or difficulty that I have faced was working with children that didn’t want to cooperate with the activities. Not every child wants to play the game that we have chosen. Most children do enjoy the games but there are always those few kids who must be difficult. Not that this is good but it does help you get a feel for it because I feel as a future teacher we will undoubtedly come across some children like this. Another difficulty that I have faced is the issue of having enough space. One of our activities had to be moved to the cafeteria because there wasn’t enough room. This wasn’t a big deal because we just adjusted a few things and continued on with our activity in a different location. It wasn’t the environment we wanted but it worked out fine.

Some ideas or suggestions that I have to resolve these difficulties are to: manage my games according to space and time, and to also find games that seem suitable for children of all skills levels. This will help to keep more children into the activities and eager to play the games. Managing the games according to time and space would consist of keeping the movements of the game more controlled so that you determine where the children will move compared to having them running all over gym.

Leap over, Jump on, Slide across

On Monday I observed 6 year old Anthony and 6 year old Rowan, who are both in Kindergarten. Anthony is a male and Rowan is a female who both had differences in their ability levels. Both of these students were able to perform the locomotor skills but each had different forms while doing them. There were things that Anthony did better than Rowan, and Rowan performed other things better than Anthony. We observed these two students perform the locomotor skills of leaping, jumping horizontally, and sliding while attending the super hero training camp. It was interesting to see all of the different abilities within these children.

Since I worked with the older kids today some of the teaching strategies that I used were different then what I would use with the younger ones. We played kick ball and what I thought worked very well was to just be encouraging, partly participate, and just let the students play the game with minimal interruption. The kids really like kick ball and enjoyed having us participate as well. Overall the activity went very well and it was a great day.

There were many strategies that I have used these past couple of weeks to capture the children’s attention and keep them on task for the activity. Acting parts out and dressing to the role always had a great response for the children. I also enjoyed doing demonstrations because I fell like the students enjoy watching us participate as well. The last one is to always be encouraging no matter how bad things are going. As long as you are 100% into it, then chances are that the will be as well.

Watch and Learn

At St. Mary’s I observed a six year old boy named Shamus who is in first grade. I also observed a five year old girl named Kasey who is in kindergarten. These two individuals were both able to perform the locomotor skills of running, galloping, and hopping. Even though Shamus was only one year older than Kasey it seemed to have a very big impact on the differences in ability. It seemed like Shamus was able to perform the locomotor skills more consistently and for a longer period of time. Kasey on the other hand would start out doing well but her movements started to break up after a little while. Shamus was overall more coordinated with his steps throughout the three locomotor skills. I also saw that both of the students were making mistakes similar to one another. For instance, on the Gallop, the foot trailing was not always at a position adjacent to or behind the lead foot. But overall both students performed well.

The effective teaching strategies that I observed on Monday were using music, dressing up, acting out all the different parts, and just being really enthusiastic with all of the activities. It seemed like the more excited we were to explain the game, the more they wanted to play it. I used music and being really enthusiastic towards all of the children playing our game. These teaching strategies made all of the children really want to play and be a part of the Stink Letter Stew Game. We also had the chefs that were stirring the stew wearing aprons so the kids felt that they were giving ingredients for the stew. This really made the kids feel like they were all helping to create the end product of the stinky letter stew. I felt like each game had different strategies that worked better than others but one teaching strategy that always must be present, in all games, is just being very enthusiastic and eager for the children to be playing the games. This will make them want to play that much more and by the end of the class you want them to be excited for the next time we play.

1st day at St. Mary's

On Monday we had our first real experience with the children at St. Mary's Elementary School. I was with the group that was put in the gym to start out. I had an idea of what to expect, because I have worked with younger kids in lacrosse before, but I had no idea what kids were like after being in a classroom all day. The first game we played was freeze tag, or temple tag as I was quickly reminded by the children. When we said go to start the game it was a total yelling and running festival. I'm not even sure if all of the kids were playing tag, I think they just enjoyed running around yelling. At the end the game it turned out to be very successful. We continued on to play team rock, paper, scissors using your body. This activity also went well and everyone had fun with it. It was then snack time. The children ate and we played board games, card games, and many other fun games. To wrap it up at the end we had an open gym time where the children got to pick what they wanted to do. I was playing basketball with these two very talented 1st graders. They both had a really great shot for their age, I was shocked. We then circled up and closed the lab with a small game and a cheer. It was a lot of fun for both the children and the instructors and I am looking forward to the next lab.

In With Dodge Ball

For schools to do away with dodge ball is just a bad idea on many accounts. Sure it can be viewed as this violent game where you are aiming to hit people with a ball, throwing it as fast as you can, to get them out. However, there is more to this game then what it is usually portrayed to be. This is a great game for kids because it teaches them to aim, which is used in many sports such as pitching in baseball. It also shows a student how to dodge balls being thrown at them which is similar to dodging a tackler in football. To get a player out in dodge ball you can catch a ball being thrown from the opposing side. This action of catching will carry over to sports such as football, basketball, and many others as well. The movements in dodge ball are very similar to other movements in sport. So by playing this game maturely and responsibly it can undoubtedly be a great game to teach children. It will teach them the importance of sport movements and being able to hold their own no matter what sport they are playing.