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.   

ExerGame Workshop at AAHPERD 2012 Rocked

We had a great morning with all the presenters and attendees discovering the many faces of exergaming and ways to implement them into any curriculum to accomplish your intended learning outcomes (specific learning outcomes/ objectives) which should be the main focus of any lesson/unit plan.

From no or little technology or to full blown exergaming systems, our star-studded cast of presenters helped attendees to feel the difference when some form of technology is used appropriately.

A special thank you to the teacher-candidates and student-teachers from SUNY Cortland who came a day earlier than the rest of the gang to help lead games, give suggestions for using technology, and be so supportive of all the presenters. They're already talking about making North Carolina in 2013 even better!

Helping out this morning were student-teachers Ben Paquette & Andy Snide; and teacher-candidates Anthony DiRienzo, Sunnie Biffarella, TJ Toteno, Steve Miner, Pat Kaplan, & Dave Sommer. One of the greatest benefits was interacting with attendees who are teachers and athletic-directors from Missouri, Mass, NY, Guam, Puerto Rico, Washington, Kentucky, Canada, .....basically all over the world. And if you ask some of them, some of them were even discussing JOB OPPORTUNITIES for next fall all over the country. You never know who you're going to meet when you're networking at these conferences...but you'll never experience it until you get yourself to a conference. Hint Hint!

Student teaching expectations

For those of you that are getting ready to student teach here's a little insight for you.  Be prepared!  Your students will be at school ready to do what you have for them before you think.  You always have to be on your toes and be willing to switch things up if they don't work out.  As you can see in this picture, it's not a normal game of volleyball but one with four courts.  Reason being because the students got bored with regular volleyball and I still had two days left to teach it.  Students like change and a challenge.  Give them that challenge because the best reward is when they come in next class asking if they can play that game again.


Nothing will prepare you for discipline.  Fights, foul language, and kids messing around is something that you can't be prepared to handle but have to have a cool head and know the appropriate ways to handle these situations.  Just saying "stop" might not work, so you have to think.  The best way to learn how to deal with these situations is experience and it will get easier.  My first few weeks of student teaching was a handful with many fights, a constant use of foul language, and students doing what they're not supposed to, the entire class.  It is now easy for me to handle because I know what to expect and what to do because of the previous problems.

Whatever you do when student teaching, have fun!  If you can't enjoy it, then you shouldn't be teaching.  It's also not about how much you know, it's about how much you care about the students.  Building a positive relationship with your students has some of the best rewards and will make your job easier.  Whether it's coaching or teaching, know your students, be personal with them, and show them that you care about their success because they will see that and appreciate that you're their teacher/coach.  You will know that you accomplished this when they are upset that you are leaving their school and you will know that you did everything you were supposed to do. 

Andrew Snide

Student Teaching (Wii) Fitting for Nicole S

Student Teaching

Hello All! So the first 4 weeks of student teaching have flown by, but yet so much has been done. While I've been at this school I have been able to help out it in games night, literacy day, and start up a morning intramural game program. Most recently we have started up our gymnastics unit which usually consists of 7 or so stations that the students rotate through. This year I decided that a Wii Fit Balance station would be a nice addition. Students have been very enthusiastic to participate. Many already understand and own the game, so little instruction is needed, which means more activity time! The school that I am currently at is not very familiar with technology. This game is a great start for the program, and I have been able to peek the interest of my cooperating teacher to invest in more of these games for next year. This  game is both exciting and beneficial to the students, which will hopefully continue onto next year. - Nicole Sherman's ePortfolio

Scary Student-teaching: Working (it) Out

Student-teaching (ST) is on the horizon for many of you and I wanted to share some words and experiences from your fellow Cortland Rockstars PE Student Teachers.

Be sure to check out Ben Paquette's experiences incorporating Minute To Win It Fitness Unit with some exergaming (Jackie Chan J-Mat) to provide timed trials and feedback.

First period went off with a hit(ch) and was a complete success, students were sweating, working hard, cheering on their teammates, captains came out in the groups (which wasn’t even thought of) and after reviewing the results the students that we thought would be weaker, were actually the students doing the best! In the fast feet challenge, I had students breaking records and a Kindergartner get 86 steps in 10 seconds… it was so unbelievable and impressive we decided to submit his name into the morning announcements with the 5th and 6th grade teams. Overall the teams were even and worked out in all my classes today. Behavioral problems were minimal to the point Mrs. Drumm commented, “This is almost scary, how well everyone is working together and actually working hard”. Overall today was amazing, it felt great to know my hard work came together and worked out!

Ryan Carpenter just emailed me with this update of a recent workshop for new exergaming equipment that arrived via a PEP grant.

Hope this semester is going well for you. Thought I would shoot you an e-mail today after the training I did with my Cooperating Teacher and the PE teachers in the school district.  The school district just received a large grant this year for PE, and they're bringing in a lot of new equipment.  They just started putting in XerPro SPORTWALLs, and we got to play some games on it with different variations and ideas. Put in a pretty solid workout with different shuttle runs, sit ups and throwing games.  It was a good time, and thought I would share it with you.
Hope all is well,
Ryan C