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 

Family Buy In PE

Beltsville PE uses blogs to communicate with students and parents homework, special dates and even assignments for missed classes. In Prince George's County there are over 25 SUNY Cortland PE alumni - so I'll follow up with them to see if any of this staff did.

I asked them " On a scale of 1-10, how important is it for you to intereact/communicate/educate the parents/guardians & advocating HQPE" and they answered:

"@syangman 10! Getting the family to buy in is a huge step toward creating physically competent and active, healthy kids!"

https://twitter.com/#!/BeltsvillePE/status/167987939052232704

Check them out at:
http://beltsvillepe.blogspot.com/


How will you use technology to aid you in "creating physically competent and active, healthy kids!"


Remember that using tech is part of the Healthy New Year Resolution Video Assignment - which is due Feb. 16th.
201 - 255  - 470


Video Contest page - Go Cortland PE!

Attention 201 Rockstars!

Rockstars, do not forget to blog about your recent visit to St. Mary's.  Please remember to upload your game for your next lab to the Google docs.  For Monday's lab please have it completed by 5pm this friday Feb. 10, and for Wednesday's lab please have it completed by this Sunday Feb. 12. Thanks!


Also please publish your reflections to your blog one week from your lab experience.  This includes your reflection, the answers to your lab questions, as well as at least 3 pictures.


Click here for St. Mary's Game Planner.





Also do not forget to check out the photo album!  This is a helpful tool to use not only for uploading the pictures to your block, but for using the pictures as artifacts to use in your portfolio.  Take advantage of this great opportunity that Dr. Yang offers for you!


Click here for Picasa photo album from Labs 1 and 2. Thumbs Up!

Lab B: Blazing a Trail to Better PE

We had a great series of lessons this morning to really jump start our teaching labs. Check out the videos on our Lab B playlist and see what pedagogical tools you can identify and determine their effectiveness.

255 Lab B Tips

Hey Rock stars I hope everybody is practicing for their lab B, it is quickly approaching. From what I saw everyone was off to a great start!!! Don't forget, teaching is not only about being able to do the skill but also to teach your students how to do the skill. The first thing to think about when teaching is your cues; your cues set the basis for your whole lesson. They should be descriptive but also short so the students can remember them easily; try and keep the lesson to only three main cues. Next is be creative, everybody is teaching jump rope, what can you do to set your lesson apart from everyone else’s? Some things to think about are music, different activities, etc. Anything unique that comes to mind, give it a try because you never know what will work. It is helpful to create a trademark for yourself, something you can always go to, and once again, makes you stand out. Most importantly bring high energy, after five other people teaching some kind of jump rope skill if your energy is low then your lesson will be a flop. Energy is very contagious and you need to provide it in order to be successful. I hope everyone is practicing very hard to master all of your skills to deliver a lesson to be proud of. Ultimately, remember to utilize what you have, all of the TA’s are more then willing to help you and give you ideas!!

Healthy New Year Video Challenge - 1st entry

GK's Karagrozis' Physical Fit Lifestyle entry for the Healthy New Year Resolution Submission to US Gov Competition is filled with great apps to track Physical Activity and Nutrition. Will he win some $$$??? Top prize is $2000 with lots of other awards too. Let's see if we can get somebody from SUNY Cortland on this list!  Help spread the word, and use the hashtag #HealthIT4U2012 when you tweet.  

Success of Failure - Lab A

Now that we've had the opportunity to teach twice in less than two weeks, we hope that these practice sessions will encourage reflective growth and exploration of the art and science of teaching and learning. We've seen some great initial use of pedagogical tools and with more practice, failures, and "teachable moments" we will get better.

Here are the photos from our micro-lessons so please use them to support your blog posts.  Please download the software program (Picasa) so that you will be able to do other assignments later in the semester. Also once you find a photo in the album you want to download - press the "Action" button then scroll down to "Download Photo. If you try to right click and save or drag the photo to your computer the resolution is much lower than you will need for later on.



Speaking of failure, I saw this great post on CNN about failure for a Pulitzer Prize winning author and I love this statement:

"The key is struggling a lot," she says.

As we mentioned in class you don't learn anything by being successful at it the first time. It is through our struggles and failures that we learn to focus and correct for the next time and the reason why practice is so important to our profession. Just because you do something once does not make you a reflective and ever-improving teacher.

Here is another post from last semester about Manny Pacquio's intense training and sparring regiments prior to a fight. Check it out and see how you might apply similar techniques to your teaching lessons.

Learning to teach like a ROCKSTAR

In today's 255 class everyone had a great time. this shows how easy it is to make an activity exciting with little amount of time. On Friday students will be re-teaching their lab A. This will give you a chance to get a little more practice.

Thing to keep in mind: (Just a few tips)

            Introduce yourself- This is a must.

            Have a safety statement- your job as a teacher candidate is to provide a safe learning environment so a little reminder of what to stay within or to follow is key.

            Hook- Although hooks are great with only 4 minutes to teach it is understandable not to have one.

            Demonstrate with cues- Break down the skill that you are focusing on and there is your cues.

            Feedback- Always give feedback that goes along with your cues.

            Close- Remind them how great they did and add a little spice for next class to keep them excited!

This is the link to the outline of Lab A2. https://sites.google.com/site/rockstarpe/classes/edu-255/labs/lab-a

   This is everything that you will want to know and review before teaching.

Remember have fun and be loud.

Cortland PE Portfolio Showcase Fall 2011

Best & Worst Moments in Movement

Ramsey has posted his Prezi describing his Best and Worst Moments in Movement using a variety of media including images, hand drawn computer art, www.xtranormal.com video with his own voice recorded to narrate the story, all encompassed within the framework of his goaltender gloves. Check it out!