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Thursday, September 10, 2009

201 Moving Name Game

Here are the lab groups for PED 201 Monday and Wednesday respectively. We will have a test next week on your own lab group's names. The second test will be on the other group's names. Remember that learning names will be one of your most relied upon tools to managing a class and creating a positive learning environment. In each of your current classes, I challenge you to learn everyone's name. It will get you in the habit of learning names really quickly and that will be crucial to each of your field experiences.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Toastmasters Speech 5: Your Body Speaks


I love this blog because it has so many helpful techniques to better communication. Check out the latest post on

Six Minutes: Public Speaking and Presentations Skills (Your guide to becoming a confident and effective speaker)

When you're teaching, how do you keep your student's attention and focus? What subtle techniques do you use to get their attention if their focus drifts a bit and are they aware of your classroom rules and policies? Does the way you dress, your hairstyle, and the way you carry yourself convey the things you want to say about yourself as a teacher? Think about it and let's get prepared to work on our message. Click on the following link for the full post.
  • Toastmasters Speech 5: Your Body Speaks

    tags: no_tag

    • Is your body dead when you speak, or does your constant motion give your audience headaches?

      Does your face signal fear or does it signal excitement for your topic?

      Do your hands vibrate, or do they punctuate your words?

      The fifth Toastmasters speech project encourages you to make every body movement enhance your speech rather than detract from it. This article of the Toastmasters Speech Series examines the primary goals of this project, provides tips and techniques, and links to numerous sample speeches.


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Friday, September 4, 2009

How Committed and Passionate Are You?


In quintessential Queen style, singer Freddie Mercury's presence is so powerful there is no doubt who is in charge or what he's communicating. Watch to see how he leads the audience, all 72,000 of them at Wembley Stadium in London. It was at this moment for me as a teenager that music started speaking to me and since that time sparked a love for music and performing. Out of all the performances by all the artists, this was the one performance that would never be topped. I remember sitting up to watch in amazement as the crowd (not a Queen concert crowd, mind you) was so in to each song, each other and most of all the moment. Oh to have been there!! Pay particular attention at 5 minutes and 23 seconds, when you can really see the entire audience clapping to Radio Ga-Ga. I still get chills watching that performance and listening to others describe how pivotal this performance was to the success of Live Aid and catapulting Queen's legacy into the stratosphere. How can one person, singing one song lead so many? What would possess people half a mile away to sing and clap along to a song? What qualities does he and others possess to inspire his audience? What and who inspires you? How do they do it? What is their message and what is the medium?
You had your time, you had the power
You've yet to have your finest hour
Radio
Watch in full screen-mode and crank up the volume. With little transition between songs 'Radio GaGa' and 'Hammer to Fall', watch and marvel at how Freddie uses a couple of syllables to charge the crowd up even more.


Here is a great news piece on Queen's rehearsal prior to Live Aid.


Queen (set list) - "Bohemian Rhapsody" (part), "Radio Ga Ga", "Hammer to Fall", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "We Will Rock You" (part), "We Are the Champions"

What about Danyl Johsnon's audition on X-Factor? Can you tell he was passionate, relaxed and excited to be performing? What do you look like in your initial micro-teaching episode? Can you see any excitement and enjoyment while teaching? How will you convey your interests in helping your students learn? Voice, body language, preparedness, confidence, props, calmness, etc...? How will you make your classes so that students want to come back and want to participate?

Please embed your video from our YouTube Channel - and write a reflection that answers some of the above questions along with what you think you did well and what you can improve.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

255 Methods Off and Running

The start of the 255 semester is rolling along as we have already done a first teaching episode (micro-teaching) and experienced a more holistic Ultimate Frisbee lesson. The object of your quiz on Friday will be to simply name each student and their action they performed during the ice-breaker "Moving Name" game.

Here is the link to all of your lessons posted to YouTube on our channel http://www.youtube.com/user/RockstarPE