Sarah Nadrowski (2013) Wins All-Around National Title

Congratulations to Sarah Nadrowski a Cortland PE Senior who won the all-around title at the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA) Championships, hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.  The Cortland team won third place overall. More details can be found here.

Yangs Rockers

When the day came when I had to do my Lab D for Professor Yang emotions were running through my body. It seemed to be so much work, however when you have something you love to do you don't mind running around like a chicken with your head cut off. While keeping your cool of course.


Unfortunately Lab D was not the only thing on my mind

  at the time, I had recently got a summer job in Cortland for the summer so it felt like I was working two jobs at once! Talk about exhilarating. I think this will help me in the long run however. If I could learn now how to handle two jobs then I think I'll be better off in the future. When I do get out into the teaching world I wont be able to just teach. I feel like I need another job, such as coaching or working at a fitness club or even a camp. Something to make myself more available to the people in my community. I feel it is very important to have outside resources readily available. It is not only us that should be the P"E Rockstar" for life but everybody. If we can get the idea of being healthy is fun into peoples minds, then we've done our job.

If we could get kids moving more times a day at the heart rate that would qualify as a good workout then we are going to have healthier kids. There are ways to make every child want to be physically active, whether that means "tricking" him into doing so or not. Professor Yang is a huge endorser of the exergaming workouts, how innovative is that! Talking about reaching out to the people who don't usually like Physical Education! Reaching out to these students is our duty, we might not be able to force them to play, but the ability to let them have fun is always there!
I encourage you to visit my personal blog. the site is www.pemrus.blogspot.com. I will be doing my 256 field experience this summer and I am very excited to keep everybody updated on what I am doing and how it is panning out. Who could forget about raquette lake this summer as well. Both of these experiences should be one to remember for a long time.



Sample of Scope and Sequence
Sample of Lesson Plan
Sample of Progressions
My Blog
My Professional Portfolio
My letter to my Superintendent
Sample of my Block Plan

Scavenger Hunt: Mobile Adventure Walks - K. Arnold

Scavenger Hunt by Kimberly Arnold

My last teaching experience for Basics of Effective Instruction in Physical Education course has come to a close. The experience, however challenging it was for me, revealed my potential. It was a great learning opportunity. As I reflect back, there were both positive and negative outcomes. I know that I have come a long way from that four-minute skill-teaching lab at the beginning of the semester and yet I there are still mountains in the distance. I can see that I have developed a certain confidence talking in front of a group that I never had. However, I still need to be careful with my words, as at times I'm less than precise with my words.

This last lab gave me a change to be creative and original. I believe that some of the components really enhanced the experience for my classmates. I presented them with a Challenge By Choice in which they would link up with classmates during the scavenger hunt. This forced every last person to work together and cooperation with each other. I would do something similar to this again, however I might use a Hula Hoop instead and have only two or three people in a group. Either way, the concept lends itself to a true cooperative learning experience. Additionally, I started the class with two different lead in activities.  I felt that both activities were necessary to begin to establish the working climate between students. They quickly played a game of Blog Tag and then I had groups work their way through three stations to introduce the topic of the scavenger hunt (the harmful effects of cigarette smoking). The class did the final station together. FYI, I had planned to do all the station in groups but I rotated the groups incorrectly. Nonetheless, I was glad that I goofed up because I think that the last station activities created a fun and spontaneous atmosphere.

However, there were a few near fatal flaws in my teaching. First, I failed to provide students will emergency contact information. Since one group was on their one during half the class, I should have given contact numbers if there were any problems. Second, I planned to do the first pinpoint location on the Mobile Adventure Walks App together. 

This would have allowed me to make sure that each group took a different route. In addition, at that time I knew that had to give them cues on how best to work the app. I should have address how to determine their next destination. This mistake did cause some hiccups. Also, I never told the students who were the acting touring guides to read the question aloud as they reached each location. Futhermore, I should have better explained what they were looking for and what they were to do at each location (take an index card and leave the item in the container). All of those glitches could have been avoid had I remember to complete the first location together.

Another significant problem of my lesson was that I gave them too many tasks to complete while the hunt was in progress. I asked them upload pictures to Twitter, complete a worksheet, and create a jingle. Looking back I probably should have left the assignment to the end of class as a take home assignment. They had too many things in their hands.

On the other hand, many qualities about my lesson were strong. My lesson was structured to educate the participants, learning through the physical, as my professor says. It was not just a simple scavenger hunt but rather a means to have student begin to understand their own health as it relates to personal decisions and smoking cigarettes. It is this concept that inspired me. If you don’t already know, I currently work in the healthcare field. The reason for my transition into Physical Education is largely due all that I have witness in my career. Physical Education can’t just be about promoting athletes and good PACER scores, but must be about teaching children the ways in which to develop and maintain their own personal health. This is vital; so that future generations will not continue to experience the same health aliments that are facing our nation now.

Resource Packet
Tobacco Information
Assignment to Assess Leaning
Behavior Management
C-12 Form
Transcription
Time Coding
Superintendent


My Blog
Professional E-Portfolio

Great news, my bulletin board was accepted and published by PE Central's Bulletin Board section. Check out the link to my published bulletin board PEC: Bulletin Boards for Physical Education

Non-Traditional Students Inducted into Honor Society

Congratulations to two of Cortland PE students and Rockstar PE Alum Tracy McClure and Nate Davis for being elected to membership in Alpha Sigma Lambda, an international honor society recognizing the academic achievements of non-traditional students.

Alpha Sigma Lambda national standards reserve membership for students who are in the top 10 percent of all non-traditional students at the College. Members must have completed 24 credits hours of work at SUNY Cortland with a grade point average of 3.2 or higher. For the inductees to be in the top 10 percent of students at SUNY Cortland this year, they needed to have a GPA of 3.65 or greater.  The GPA range for this group of students inducted was 3.65 to 4.22.

Tracy McClure - Blog - ePortfolio

Nate Davis - Blog - ePortfolio

via Cortland News
Cross-posted from PE Dept blog

Power Yoga! - Trisha Clark

                  Today was the first day for Lab D! It was my time to teach and set the bar for the rest of the class since I was the first to go! My focus for the class was Power Yoga! This lab took a lot of time and preparation to get ready for considering I had to teach for 35 minutes, which is much longer then ever have before. Also I had to try and teach in the style of “practice”. On top of the task of teaching yoga, I also had a fitness/wellness focus of “why PE?” I had to introduce to the class.

          I started off my lesson with an instant activity that would teach students about why PE is important! The activity was just a simple game of “speed walking” tag but the taggers had to carry heavy backpacks and pass it off when they tagged the next person. I was hoping with this activity the students would realize that when you have to carry extra weight being active is harder and not as fun because of it. So after they finished the short activity I explained that 31% of NYS students are overweight or obese so PE is important to teach students to live an active lifestyle instead of a sedentary one. Not only does PE give everyone a time in their day to be active but also can teach students activities they can enjoy in their own time. 

                  Next I had everyone get a partner and find a station where there was yoga poses. There were a total of six stations and two people at each station. All the students were at a station for about 2 to 3 minutes and had to practice the pose and they could challenge themselves or modify the pose if they needed to. At this point in the lesson I walked around and gave feedback and helped them figure out the proper position. Also at one station I had my iPad set up for the students to record themselves while they were at the station. I would then use this as my assessment later on.

                  Then after everyone had been at each station I brought everyone back together as a group to perform a full routine. They followed a video that had specific directions of poses to perform including poses that they worked on in the stations. The video they followed I created myself, so during this time I walked around and gave feedback and corrections. The routine was 11 minutes long and was designed to get them working up a sweat! Then I closed my lesson by asking them to name a few poses and the muscles that were important to perform the position.

                  

Overall I was very happy with how my lesson went! I feel that I have really grown since my very first day! During the first lab I was so nervous, my voice wasn’t very loud or confident. Then for this lab I felt confident in what I was teaching because of the practice and preparation I had done and I was excited to teach my lesson! This lab took a lot of work but I feel like it was worth it because everyone seemed to enjoy it! With this lesson I wanted the students to work up a sweat and have fun with it and I think by the end of the lesson I accomplished this! One thing I feel I did well was giving specific feedback. During the station I tried to make my way around to each group helping them on certain little things to make their poses better. I also tired to do this during the full routine! After reviewing the my lesson I think I gave each student specific feedback at least twice during the whole lesson! 

                   While I was teaching Professor Yang asked a few students to act out to see how I would handle it. At first Eric said “Yoga is for girls!” so I addressed him by telling him to modify the position in any “manly” way he would like. That seemed to help that problem but then Eric and his partner Max were kept getting off task. At first I just would pay close attention to them and challenge them so they weren’t getting bored, but that didn’t seem to work. So Professor Yang suggested that I would separate them. Then when I had the class switch stations I tried to not make it obvious but split them up, so I had Emily join Max and then Eric was a partner with Devon. This was definitely a challenge to deal with because they were very persistent in getting off task, but it taught me a lesson for sure! Sometimes addressing students isn’t enough so you just have to break them up. Also this taught me that when you have an activity that involves groups or partners it may be best to break up the students yourself so you can make sure certain people are not working together if it could become a disturbance. Also because I had my iPad set up at one station it was almost like my extra set of eyes. After my lesson I reviewed the videos and it showed me how much I didn’t notice because I could in the background some students getting off task that I never noticed. I think from this if I were to redo my lesson I might keep the station time shorter and maybe have the challenges a little harder so they didn’t get bored. One last thing I learned from this lab had to do with my visual aids! I was making so many posters for each station that I ended up mixing up one of the instructions on a poster. So the directions didn't match the pose! Thank goodness it was only on one poster, but next time I will make sure to triple check my visual aids!!

                  Lab D was a great experience! I was really happy with the result of my last teaching experience for EDU 255! It really gets me excited to get out there and teach for real!! 

Power Yoga Resource Packet

Power Yoga Lesson Plan  
Teaching Transcription 
Feedback Analysis Form
Time Coding Form
Yoga Routine Video
Evaluation Form
Lesson  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Video Assessment - From iPad Station

Yoga Bulletin Board 
          - Free Information Card (from bulletin board)
Letter to a Superintendent 

My E-Portfolio

My Blog

Hantis: A Revolutionary Game - Kyle Roberts

Hantis Lab D

As you all know I taught Hantis for my Lab C and everyone, including myself, had a great time doing it, so I chose to teach some new skills for my lab D. I started by thinking about what I should teach considering many of the students were already sound in the fundamentals. I talked with the Hantis "Crators" and they told me about the importance of movement and dribbling, so i decided that this is what I would cover. When I first started planning for my lab D I was unsure about how I was going to incorporate the concept of Asthma into the lesson. I finally thought about the idea of showing the struggle of having asthma, through physical activity. I thought that I would first bring about the issue of hypo-kinetic asthma, which is asthma that is caused by inactivity and a sedentary lifestyle. I also planned on having students simulate the struggle of asthma throughout the lesson, but it didn't work out quite as planned. The lab also took a lot of careful planning as I needed to put in a facilities request form, and put in an equipment form for the materials that I needed. This really opened my eyes to how important planning and organization is when you are a teacher. Also I implemented technology into my lesson so I had to reserve a projector. Along with this planning I spent a great deal of time designing and creating visual aids that would be used during the lesson.

When I arrived at the classroom I was very excited to teach my lesson. All of the students were excited to play the game again and learn all of the skills. The set up was a little different from the first time that I taught because I was working on having the students move around, and the tables needed more space between them. I started the lesson out with an introduction and we were off to hantis from there. During my lesson, an issue arose that I had to deal with. One of the students "broke" their arm and it was a compound fracture. I immediately stopped the class and had someone call 911. I then had someone go out into the hallway and wait for the paramedics. The class was restless so I had two of the more advanced students showcase their skills while I dealt with the issue at hand. The only thing that I wish that I had done differently was to actually treat the injury myself. There was a first aid kit that I could have used to keep the arm form moving and preventing further injury.

Hantis Bulletin Board

I thought that the students had really come a long way from the first time I taught the lesson so I allowed for a lot of gameplay. I really felt much more comfortable directing the class and making the transitions. The last time that I taught I was nervous but now I am confident and can direct a classroom on my own.

I have truly seen a huge improvement from the beginning of the year and even from lab C. I really have worked toward creating more effective lessons the captivate the students. I also feel that I am able to take game that I do not know fully, learn them, and then be able to teach them effectively to the class. My time in 255 has truly benefited me, and I am happy with the changes I have made. I think that in teaching, professional development and change is never ending. It is important to practice, get feedback, reflect, and truly make yourself a better teacher. This can be done by doing just some of the things that we do in 255; video recording or conferences. I have developed so much as a physical educator and am looking forward to progressing in my profession. I will post some pictures and a video of my teaching so stay tuned!

Here's the Video of me Teaching:

Check out the forms from my Lab D:

Time Coding Form

Verbal Transcript

C-12 Form

SOFIT Lab D

Lab D packet

Letter to Superintendent

Board Meeting Presentation

Visit www.Hantis.net for more information.

Look for our presentation at the National AHPERD conference!

Table Tennis - Justin Nassivera

Today I taught my Lab D assignment. I taught table tennis and I thought it went okay. I didn't do everything that I'd planned, but that will happen when I'm out in the world teaching. My instant activity was based around my teaching topic HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup). I thought it was good because it made the students think about making healthy choices before they eat food. I was dissapointed because I couldn't get my technology to work in the racquetball courts because there was no internet connection. I used Forrest Gump as my hook and the students liked it. I was able to get them playing doubles in a different room. I thought playing doubles would be a good idea because it would allow them to interact with each other more often instead of one partner the entire lesson. I also tried using a separate room and go back and forth but after a minute or so I decided that it would just be easier on myself to keep them all in one room.  

My behavior issue was Trish and Emily. They were trying to flirt with me. I told them that it was inappropriate behavior and that they should not do it anymore. After that they stopped. Overall I thought I did good but I probably should've been a little bit louder. It was very tough and crowded to teach in the racquetball courts but I enjoyed the challenge. As I watched my video I saw that I was a little bit nervous at the start. It wasn't so much that I was nervous to be in front of everyone, but I wanted to make sure that I did well on my last lab of the year. 

Table Tennis Lesson Plan
Table Tennis 40 Activity Progressions
Table Tennis Resource Packet
Time Coding Form
Feedback Analysis Form
TA Evaluation 
Table Tennis Bulletin Board 

Sport Stacking - David Vistocco

Instant activity using Yoga

Today was my lab D lesson.  My activity was sport stacking.  I had no prior knowledge of stacking before so this was quite a challenge.  My teaching style was guided discovery, which I also had not done before.  After doing research and practicing stacking I felt confident going into todays lesson and I feel that translated well into my performance. Right away I got the class moving with an instant activity incorporating partner stacking and loco motor movements.  After the partners completed the task, I did my introduction into stacking while the class and I were doing different yoga positions.  In the intro I focused on bilateral movement and how that was the key to stacking successfully.  I tried to relate stacking to other sports as much as possible to grab the students interests, my cues for the 3 cup separation leading into the 6 stack were feel the laces of the cups just like a football.

3 cup separation 

Also when I asked for benefits of bilateral movement we talked about sports that it was used in which was a good way to relate all aspects of my lesson.  Devon was a deaf student in my class today and it was a nice challenge to help him along and I feel I did very well with that and most of the students did not even notice.

Intratask variation using timing mats

The body of my lesson was nothing like what I had on my lesson plan and I feel that was beneficial because it showed how I can adapt and change within a lesson.  Students were understanding and doing very well with the 6 stack so we moved on to the 3-6-3 which was more challenging but still incorporated everything we did in class so far. When moving on to the 3-6-3 I saw Emily first trying it so I stopped the class and used her as my main demonstration for the task. Using a student as a demonstration allows the other students to relate better to the task because it is someone their own age and skill level completing the task.  I was assigned a theme for my lesson and that theme was relationships and break ups. I had a basic idea on how to relate this into my lesson before so during my lesson I continued with the students partner stack like they did in the beginning of class and I was able to incorporate relationships and breakups into that section.
Overall I am very pleased with my lesson it went very well, on my C-12 teacher evaluation form I did outstanding and I feel my ratio of time of student activity to demonstration time was in the student activities favor.  After talking with Professor Yang some things I could have improved on was intratask variation.   I did some variation with students using timing mats, smaller cups, eyes closed but he suggested I could have changed their body positions and incorporated yoga into stacking because I did it earlier in the lesson and it would have connect all parts of my lesson.

Working with Devon a deaf student

Using a student demonstration
to progress to the 3 6 3 

As I said overall I thought I did very well and I am very pleased with my performance. When doing my time coding sheet I had over 50 percent of student activity which is important and it is the first time I have done that in a lab so far which further shows my development. Since this is my last lesson of 255 I took time to reflect on my improvement from lab A till lab D.  My improvement was incredible and the lessons that I will take with me from this class will help me grow and become a better educator.  Before this class I could not imagine doing this well on a 20 minute Sport Stacking lesson but after learning a lot of information from Professor Yang and my classmates it made teaching this lesson feel very easy and comfortable.  The little things that I have taken away from my classmates lessons and the TA's lessons will help me in the future and I will never forget the incredible experience I had this semester in this class.

Video of Lesson Part 1

Video of Lesson Part 2

Video of Lesson Part 3

Lesson Plan

Packet

Verbal Transcript

Time Coding

C-12 Evaluation Form

Ultimate Pool Frisbee - Mike Morelli

The day had come where I was doing my final teaching experience in 255. As I sat watching my buddy Devon teach, waiting to go next, I didn't feel nervous one bit. I think that comes down to how well my Professor prepared me throughout the semester. I have learned an incredible amount of information from Professor Yang; he is way beyond the game and his techniques are revolutionary for Physical Education. For Lab D, I decided to teach my class defense in Ultimate "Pool" Frisbee. I felt it was a risky choice due to how common Ultimate Frisbee is getting, but I felt since it was in the pool and I added a few new adaptions to it that it would be a hit. It turned out better than I thought!

{Instant Activity with the "Swinxs"}

I started my lesson with a relay race to get the class going. My Professor told us we had to integrate technology into our lesson so I took up his suggestion of using this device called the "Swinxs." It's an interactive device that has many games on it. I chose the game Swinxs Dash. It allowed two separate teams to go and than whichever team finished back first, it told them their time. All the students were definitely feeling good after the relay race. Next up, I went over classroom rules and safety than jumped into the main focus of the lesson. I was focusing on defending with the noodle for Ultimate Pool Frisbee. I had the students work as pairs so they could get used to slapping the frisbee down to the water. After that I had them work in groups of 4 (2 v 2) so they could get a taste of gameplay. After seeing excellent results, the final 6-7 minutes of the lesson were devoted to gameplay. After watching the students smile and laugh and have activity falling just short of 50% of the lesson, I am happy with how my lesson went.

After watching and analyzing my video countless times, I can confidently say this was my best performance thus far. I feel I have grown incredibly since Lab A up until this point now. Comparing my video from Lab A to Lab D you can see a lot of growth. I feel that I am a lot more confident in my teaching abilities where as in Lab A I was nervous and seemed unorganized. Throughout the labs I am able to gain and retain students attention and have them jumping into activities quickly. I noticed in Lab D students started to goof off and I addressed it quickly and kept them on target.

Things I still want to work on though is more activity. Physical Education should be about physical activity and I want to have as much of that as possible. I noticed in my video I can cut a lot of the talking out; but I have done better with that throughout the labs and it is also something that gets better with time. I have incorporated technology better into my lessons too. Wether it be music, the swinxs, or videos, Lab C and D saw me put technology to use. Thanks to Professor Yang, I have seen myself go through a complete transformation in my teaching abilities. I am more confident, organized, prepared, and knowledgable due to what I have learned in EDU 255! Below are some links where you can watch my lesson and check out some of the analyzing I did for my lesson. I also made a video that shows my growth as a teacher candidate and my ability to make an impact and improve student learning. Enjoy!

Growth Of A Teacher Video

Part 1 of Lesson

Part 2 of Lesson

Lesson Plan

40 Task Progressions

Feedback Analysis

Teacher Assistant Review

Time Coding

Transcript

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!

Sara Scores Player of the Week Recognition!

Sara Woodward

Field Hockey10/16/2011Link to Full Bio

Sara scored three consecutive goals in Cortland's 7-0 victory over visiting Morrisville State as Cortland concluded its SUNYAC schedule with a 6-0 record. She leads the Red Dragons this season with 23 points, including a team-high 10 goals.