Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Last Day at St, Mary's

The last day at St. Mary's was fun; it was the Christmas theme. I wore a Santa hat and all of the kids loved it! I was in the special projects group and my job was to go around with the camera and take pictures of everyone teaching in action. When I was done taking pictures I had to chance to interact with the kids. My favorite part of the day was playing the parashoot games, it was so much fun. I always enjoyed playing these games when I was little. I had a game prepared called "Christmas Tree Tag", but we did not have enough time to play it. However I got to lead the St. Mary's Cheer: 1...2...3... Merry Christmas St Mary's!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

St. Mary's Bazaar

What a great day at St. Mary's for the Bazaar on Saturday, I had a fun time. It was fun seeing all of the little kids having fun playing all of the games. Ryan and I worked the basketball and football station. The kids had to purchase tickets to play the games, and each game costed a ticket to play. We arrived for the 2-4 pm time and at that time it started to slow down, but we still had fun. We helped clean up after everyone left, it felt good to help out. St Mary's did a great job organizing this event. What a success, all of the kids had nothing but smiles and laughs.
Here is a picture of Ryan and I with a kid during the basketball station.

Monday, November 22, 2010

UNEXPECTED Day and St Mary's

Today at St. Mary's was a great experience, the theme was Thanksgiving.  I was in the cafeteria group so at first we evaluated a boy and a girl during Ryan, Trent and Pete's games.  We evaluated them on their basketball dribbling and kicking. We were hit with a curve ball as soon as we walked into the gym. We were stuck with use of only half of the gym. I thought the gym group did a good job because it was easy for us to evaluate the the kids during their games with the small area.  After the gym group was done with their games my group headed down to the cafeteria to meet up with our group. We had got there just in time for a couple of rounds of heads up seven up.  I always loved playing this game when I was a little kid, I feel that the game will never get old. We then went up to the gym to play our games with the kids. I did not think mine would work because of the small area that we were limited to, but I tried it anyway. I tried to get the kids to play but only three kids were interested, so we gave it a try.  My game was called "Kick the Turkey", the goal was to kick the soccer balls into the net. Since we did not have much room or a big number of kids participating, I went in to be a goalie.  We were to close and the kids were really good at kicking and the game was becoming too dangerous. When the others saw me in goal they wanted to take my spot, at that point I had to put the game to an end because I did not want anyone to get hurt. Although we had some some obstacles to overcome I felt our time was not wasted. I had fun working with little Tommy. We played one on one basketball and threw the football around. Great day at St. Mary's!!!!!!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Halloween at St Mary's

What a fun Halloween day at St Mary's. I was dressed up as a baseball player; I wore my old uniform from my previous college. It was cool, the kids were pumped when we walked into the gym all dressed up.  I was excited to break off into our separate groups because I was in the Pre K group and I brought Halloween coloring books that I made on the internet. At first I did not think we were going to have enough time for us to color, but the teacher gave the kids an option to go play in the gym and stay and color. During snack Nicole John and I encouraged the kids to stay and color with us. Luckily a few kids wanted to stay and color. I am glad a few kids decided to stay and color with us. I knew that they were having fun; as their parents came in the kids did not want to leave. I was lucky enough to have a little girl give me her picture that she had colored. When I got home I hung it on my fridge.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Super Hero Day @ St Mary's

What an experience working with the kids at St Mary's. I was extra excited because my group, was the gym group. Which meant we had to teach our own game to a group of kids. I was feeling confident before hand because I thought my game would be a lot of fun for the kids, and it was simple to understand. Since our theme was super hero's, I wore a super man shirt and played the game "Super Man Tag". I thought everything went OK, but we seemed to struggle a little bit with controlling the kids. All the kids wanted to do was run around! I had a problem with not being loud enough. I feel like I am being loud enough, but I am really not. John and Nicole were in my group and they seemed to have the same problem. It was difficult because there are so many things going on in the gym making it hard for us to explain a game and be loud. I definitely learned a lot from our lab. Other than the gym part everything went smoothly. I had a cape on that the kids loved. The cape attracted the kids to me, it was really fun. On the play ground I was playing tag with Kevin and about 4 little kids. As the game went on the a kid would touch the metal and claim he is safe because he is touching metal. Soon that would switch from metal to plastic. I thought it was creative of the kids for thinking of making the game more fun. I thought our lab ended with ended in a awesome way. Tracy's sound was great! And Ian's dance was fun. Kudos for Tracy and Ian for ending our lab in such a positive way.

The "Great Debate" At SUNY Cortland

What a fun experience it was going through the Great Debate.  The Debate was about having long handled sticks implemented into the physical education curriculum. We had Groups to to determine when or when not to start the kids with sticks.  My group was against implementing sticks at a early age. We agreed on 4th grade, but I really think we should wait until atleast 6th grade. Most kids are not coordinated, and will end up hating the sport. The others that are coordinated enough can use resources outside the classroom.
What makes a professional athlete determines how much work the athlete puts in over time. Just becuase we start implementing sticks are a young age does not mean we are going to get more professional athletes. What do we do with a kid who is not meant to be an athlete? Let him fail?

My favorite part of the debate was at the end when we did the rebuttal. It was getting intense; every student had the opportunity to speak their mind. There was some great points made throughout the rebuttal.  I agreed with the committee group with using ideas from broth groups.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

ROUND 2

Day two at St. Mary's was awesome, except I did not get to play any games with the kids. My job was to observe and interview my classmates. At first I thought it would be a boring task to have to interview everyone. How ever, After talking with my classmates, I had the opportunity to ask them anything I wanted. Since I did not share a game with the children yet; I thought it was perfect for me just to observe becuase now I know what will work and what wont work. I have come to a conclusion that the most difficult part of everyones game was explaining it! Every person said the most difficult was getting the attention of the kids. All they wanted to do was play games.  I have realized that the most important thing to do when giving directions to the little kids is do it with enthusiasm!
How could I forget! I got to lead the St Mary's AAARRRGGGGG chear!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

HALL OF SHAME GAMES ON YOU

There are numerous games and activities in the Hall of Shame. I agree and disagree with these games, and the reasons why they should or should not be out of PE. I do not agree with duck duck goose. I could modify the game so that instead of the kids sitting in a circle they could sit like a propeller. There will be four lines of students sitting in formation of a propeller and one student will walk around and tag what ever line they would like. The person that tagged the last person in line will either run, jog, gallop, skip hop or any movement they wish.  The whole line would have to do the same movement around the circle and sit back in line. The last person to sit with the group is it. This game is great becuase there are more movements invovled  than just running, and every person is going to be invloved because there are four groups to pick from. Regular duck duck goose is limited to one movement, and the choosing of one person. During a regular game of duck duck rarely every person is picked to run around.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

First Day at St. Marys

I had so much fun working with the little ones at St. Marys. I was quite nervous as the day began but once we got going everything went nice and smooth. The kids we so full of energy, it was great. The kids did not want to play any games that I insisted on. I thought it was pretty cool how Sammie had such an imagination. We were pretending to fish, it was so fun. He had a interesting set up, the hula hoop was the boat, and the whiffle balls were tied to the hoop as his bait. When I was outside with the kindergartners they loved playing hide and go seek, and playing tag. It was cool to see how they were amazed when they would find me.  I loved working with the kids and I am excited to come to St. Marys for our next lab!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Reaction to Chapter One

As a student-athlete I must use my simple motor skills in my every day life. I walk, jog, run, sprint, hop,swing a bat, throw and just about every single day. It is vital for us as soon to be physical educators to implement the basic motor skills in activities for kids so that they can master their motor skills and become more physically fit. There are four long term goals that we want to reach, movement skill aquisition, physical activity, fitness enhancement, cognitive learning and affective growth. If these developmental goals are achieved then possible athletes could develop, child obesity would decrease and kids would be more physically fit than before. I believe it starts with the physical education programs. There are plenty of programs that do not use all seven of the Content Standards for Physical Education, and those programs will suffer. The programs that do follow National Standards will have better physically fit students in a positive environment.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Stix aren't for kids

I think that children grades K-5 should not be using sticks during activity.  Lacrosse, and hockey are the two sports that these children should not be playing. Elementary PE should consist of kids mastering their fundamental movement skills.  They are just learning how to jump, hop, run, skip and gallop. There are numerous activities that kids could benefit from to develop their fundamental. These activites with sticks require some skill. These kids are not ready to catch and throw with a lacrosse stick, let alone play a comptetitive game. Their hand and eye cordination is not ready for this type of activity. Saftey is also in weighing concern. Kids might not try to physically hit another student but, the chances of students getting hit are very good. Hockey is even more dangerous in high school PE classes, imagine how dangerous it would be in K-5 PE. I think K-5 children should be involved in more activities that will improve their movement skills and prepare them to be more athletic as they develop.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Day One

               I am very excited to start the new semester here at SUNY Cortland.  New semester means a fresh start.  I know that I am going to like proffessor Yang's Motor Development class and lab becuase the class is based on learning hands on, and not just from the text book.  Working with the kids first hand is going to be the most beneficial activity that we can observe, becuase I believe the kids are going to help us become the teachers that we are achieving to be.