Using iDANCE in Student Teaching

This Friday, April 27, Professor Yang allowed me to borrow the iDANCE system to bring to my student teaching placement in State Street Intermediate School in Skaneateles, NY.  This school is grades 3-5 and the class sizes range from 18-48 kids in one class.

Having the opportunity to use this system took a lot of planning and plenty of time training with the materials.  Going to Boston, MA with Professor Yang in March to present the Exergaming systems was the start to this opportunity.  This was followed by many days in the Exergame lab using the system and getting used to how it works and how to set it up.  After it was all over, the only way I could describe the success to this program was "It couldn't have gone better".  I have never seen students so engaged in activity dealing with music.  As soon as they stepped in the gym, their faces brightened up and I knew I had their attention.  The best moment of this lesson was having one student who never participates, dancing like crazy with a smile on his face.

The plan for the day was to only use the iDANCE system with my two smaller classes of 18 and 24 students.  However, it was so successful that I ended up having the all of my classes using the program, recess classes, and teachers all coming in during the day to use it.  The largest class I used it with was with 38 kids and was still a success.

My host teacher has been interested in purchasing one of these systems for his school for a while now but has never got a chance to use it and present it to the administration.  I had the principal come in for about 20 minutes during the lesson and within 10 minutes he had my host teacher bring out a catalog to see how much it was worth.  The principal, both P.E. teachers, and all other teachers thought this program would be great for the school district to use within the four Skaneateles schools.

I have found out that it pays to take the extra time and do different things within the P.E. program.  Anything that you do can lead to something greater.  This experience that I had was by far the best in student teaching yet.  Yes, the amount of planning and stress before the lesson took a lot out of me, but by the time I was teaching, I was in the best mood and was having a blast.  So, if there's any advice that I would have to give, it would be to take chances and ask for things that may be out of reach because you never know the opportunities that could arise.   

Portfolio Showcase Spring 2012 including 4 ePortfolios

The Cortland PE Department awarded 16 teacher-candidates with Honors on their Portfolios during the Spring 2012 Portfolio Showcase at Park Center on Thursday April 26, 2012.  The recipients were J. Trenton Jones, Anthony DiRienzo, Melanie Matassa, Rebekah Fredickson, Jessica Volz, Bree Zogaria, Jamie Boldish, Andrew Hettinger, Nicole Petit, Sunnie Bifarella, Pete Johnson, Lima Stafford, Carlee Hoyt, Kimberly Quartier, Michelle Krisa, and Charles Giardino.

Please take notice that the first four recipients had Electronic Portfolios and that more and more people are choosing to represent their ability to meet NCATE Initial Teacher Standards with this tool. Click here to find out more information on how to start your own ePortfolio.  To date there have been nearly 200 ePortfolios created from current Cortland PE teacher-candidates and alumni and to see more samples and get directions to creating your own, please click here. In fact 11 of the 16 recipients all have blogs and ePortfolios and are part of the Rockstar PE Family.  Congratulations and Good Luck during Student-Teaching.

Kick Out The Ladder

Besides Honda's innovation in automobiles, their success and dedication to the pursuit of their goals is legendary and I love the metaphor "Kick Out the Ladder" as featured in the NYT some time ago.


Can this be an effective method in the education setting? Have you experienced this "Ladder" sensation before and what did it feel like and what was the result?

The so-called webisodes, each about seven minutes,  at Honda's site (dreams.honda.com), under the rubric of the “Dream the Impossible documentary series.”

"If your goal is too easy to meet, you are not challenging yourself enough."


"Never Stop Learning" and "Dream the Impossible"

PED 201 Live Concert

The PED 201 Spring 2012 - Infant Development Concert was awesome. Thank you to all that helped in setting up and running the show. Thank you to all the PED 201 students and TA's for getting this group ready for our first Poolside performance. It was a packed house and of course thank you to all the faculty and friends who came to watch and supported this performance-based learning project. It was truly a semester of firsts and we wish to encourage you to keep pursuing your passion  (Never Stop Improving) to help your students learn and grow.

Motor Development (PED 201) Infant Presentations

In PED 201 - Motor Development, students are given this project assignment to produce a representation of their understanding for a particular chapter. Each group must complete a musical video/song with lyrics appropriately explaining/teaching the audience the most important concepts. They will also have to perform in front of an audience which gives them another opportunity to show their commitment to communication and performing with passion. All part of becoming a Rockstar PE Teacher http://www.rockstarpe.org/ 

Come to Poolside next Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 12:30pm to catch this semester's latest and greatest performances.  Come out to support this semester's groups and perhaps catch some repeat performances from previous groups.

Motor Development Videos & Concert Spring 2012

In PED 201 - Motor Development, students are given this project assignment to produce a representation of their understanding for a particular chapter. Each group must complete a musical video/song with lyrics appropriately explaining/teaching the audience the most important concepts. They will also have to perform in front of an audience which gives them another opportunity to show their commitment to communication and performing with passion. All part of becoming a Rockstar PE Teacher http://www.rockstarpe.org/ 

Come to Poolside next Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 12:30pm to catch this semester's latest and greatest performances.  Come out to support this semester's groups and perhaps catch some repeat performances from previous groups.

Past videos and performances.

Spring 2012

Spring 2011
Spring 2010
Fall 2009
Spring 2009

Yoga, Zumba, & Fun Oh My!

What a great start to Lab D lessons with tons of great teaching elements covered so thoroughly. Thank you to Trish and Dan for putting so much into getting prepared for your lessons and for thinking about student learning. Remember, the remainder of groups will need to incorporate your assessment forms that you created into your lesson. Trish and Dan will be assessing with the video artifacts they created. Don't forget to get your technology needs figured out and tested way ahead of time. Please also post your practice videos to your blogs and discuss the things you want to improve.  Bonne Chance...Bueno Suerte!