To All You 256 Teacher Candidates Out There

Hello 255 Rockstars and Rebels.  I hope your semester is coming along well, and I hope you are all excited about your Field Experience that is coming up this Winter.  So far, you have had two class meetings for your 256 Experience.  Just to give you all a heads up for what is to come if you have not heard already.  There will be a number of Modules that you will have to organize in a binder with all of you assignments through your Field Experience.  There will be interviews with students, teachers and possibly administrators.  You will have to write lesson plans for the units in which your host teacher has planned.  Remember that you are not only going to be representing yourself, but SUNY Cortland and our highly commended Physical Education Department.

One thing 255 is preparing you for is making a bulletin board.  You will have to do this during your experience as a gift to the school, students and your host teacher.  It can be anything relating to Physical Education so be creative.  Maybe you want to give your students some insight on their current unit, or maybe something to do with fitness.  For mine, I chose to do a "New Year's" theme.  Everyone always says they are going to get in shape as their New Year's Resolution, so I came up with ways they could stay active all year.

I came up with activities that coincide with the month and season.  For example skiing/snowshoeing in the winter, and hiking/biking in spring and summer months.  I explained why these were good ways to stay active, but I also told them places in the area in which they could participate...NYSLS 3-Resource Management.  So, come up with ideas because it is not too early.

One last word of advice that I hope you take...DO NOT wait until the last minute to finish your notebook.

Friendship Games Visit St.Mary's Stars & End Goals

Image via WikipediaAfter-school today will be a lot of fun and developmentally appropriate games and activities centered around the theme of friendship.  It is an important to remember that games and skills are not the only end-goals. As I've mentioned previously, I can hire any one without a PE degreee to play Red Rover, Dodgeball, Duck Duck Goose. Our goal is to ensure that we are highly qualified and trained to bring about learning centered around our three domains of learning (psychomotor, cognitive, affective) taking into consideration the needs, skills, and abilities of our students.

Starting next week for prep lab, you will each need to submit your games/activiteis to the Games Planner three days prior to your prep lab and you must have the game,  all props, visual aids, and equipment ready to be tested at your prep lab. Failure to prepare means you're preparing to fail.

Are games like Dodgeball acceptable in PE?

Image via WikipediaHaving some games ready to play at St.Mary's was a good start to our overall preparedness; however, if we are truly going to change the culture of PE and have more physically educated students, then we must be sure to provide developmentally appropriate physical education (DAPE) and avoid games and activities that are in the PE Hall of Shame. After watching some of us resort to games that we played as kids and ones that are not in the best interest of young children...we will now start to explore WHY these games are not beneficial.  


Anybody without a teaching degree and a B.Sc. in P.E. can "lead" games such as Duck Duck Goose, Kickball, Dodgeball, etc...  You don't have to go to a teacher preparation program to use those games and we will NOT be playing these games while we are at St.Mary's.  We are striving to change the environment of the after-school program by using games that are supportive of the needs and abilities of the students and not just convenient to play because they know how to already play them.  When we're not there, they can play them all they want.  While we're at St.Mary's - we need you to explore and be creative to create enticing environments, choose developmentally appropriate and adaptable games/activities that help your assessment of motor skills and assist students in performing these skills more effectively.

Back to the Future: Lab A2 (255)

Here is a reminder from our course syllabus about what you need to do for Monday's class when you re-do your single skill from the first day of class.  Go out and deliver a better learning experience.  We believe in you and your abilities to make PE truly transformative and transparent.

Lab A2
Pre-Teaching

1. Find out which half of the gym you will be on.
2. You will have about 4-5 minutes to re-teach the micro-lesson of your sport skill that you originally taught in Lab A1.

Intro to St.Mary's (201)

Off and Running at St.Mary's.  It was a great way to start our experiences at St. Mary's this week.  Thanks to all the Lab Assistants for leading games and showing you how to organize/lead games as well as interact with the students. Here are some general comments we observed this week:
General Comments:

Teaching and You. Decision or Vocation?

I've often heard student's decisions to entering the teaching profession and it has always made me really wonder why they "want" to become a teacher.  Let's discuss our influences and the forces that are rapidly changing the education landscape regionally, nationally, and internationally.
Here is the link to all our text materials including online quizzes.  

Rockstars in the Making: What's My Name?

255 Rockstars in The Making. Can you remember each person's name and song? Can you sing their songs?  What about all of the TA's and their songs? Getting to know your students names is one of the most critical skills you need to practice before getting out there.  Challenge yourself to learn everyone's name in all of your other classes. I GUARANTEE that this skill will pay big dividends with your students!

Welcome to SUNY Cortland PE: The Center of PE

Welcome to the Physical Education Department at SUNY Cortland. We trust you are getting adjusted to the major and if there is anything you need or questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

As I've already mentioned our department philosophy is to prepare teachers to make a difference.  In doing so we will guide and inspire you to help your students in the process of becoming physically educated and healthy for a lifetime.