Teaching experience

Twice a week I have the opportunity to become a teachers assistant for an undergraduate elementary movements concept class. During this class the undergraduates are supposed to teach a lesson to their fellow classmates while I have the opportunity to grade them as they teach. I can say that I really enjoy helping out this class. As much as I am helping my undergraduate students to improve their lessons, I am also learning lots of from them. One of the issues that I try to address and make sure that they cover before they even start their lesson is addressing safety issues. Addressing safety issues before starting a lesson is extremely important in the protection of yourself and also your students. My students help me to learn new and interesting ways of how to improve my own teaching experiences. They come up with some of the most interesting games that will help me gain some new ideas when I become a teacher. Overall I really enjoy this experience and hope to teach as well as learn much more.

Cooking tips for the week

This past weekend I went to Rhode Island with my fiancees family. On Saturday night I decided that I would cook a little appetizer before dinner. So I went to one of the local food markets and decided I would grill a piece of white fish. This was actually the first time I had ever cooked white fish but I have seen my parents do it plenty of times so I had a good idea how to do it. The white fish I decided to cook was cod. It came out great and was a great starter to an awesome dinner. Here is how I grilled the cod.

1. Start by searching the fillet of cod for any small tiny bones (you DO NOT want any bones in the fish).

2. Then salt and pepper both sides of the cod.

3. Then take a small fillet/saute or frying pan and coat the bottom of the pan with olive oil.

4. Put the burner on high until olive oil is hot.

5. Then dice about a half of onion along with 3 or 4 cloves of garlic.

6. Add the onions into the hot olive oil (add more salt to soften up the onions).

7. Once the onions have been cooking for a couple of minutes add the diced garlic.

8. Once the onions and garlic have been cooked down and start have started to slightly brown you can add about an inch of butter or about a little less than a half cup of white wine.

9. Lastly take some cherry tomato's cut them in half, salt and pepper them, and throw them into the pan. Cook the cherry tomatoes just until they are starting to soften up.

10. Then take a big piece of aluminum foil and spread butter along the bottom of it. Then place your the raw fillet of cod on top of the aluminum foil.

11. Take the your pan of sauteed onions, garlic, and cherry tomato's, and pour it over top of the raw fillet of cod.

12. Once the cod is covered with the sauteed onions, garlic, and cherry tomato's, cut a couple of slices of lemon (take the seeds out) and place them over top of the fish. Then tightly wrap up or cover the top the cod with the aluminum foil.

13. Once your grill is nice and hot place the cod that is now tightly wrapped up in aluminum foil on the grill and turn down the heat to medium and cook for about 25 to 30 min.

14. Now you don't have too but I always add about an inch of butter in the cod about 3 minutes before I take it off the grill (Now I know what your all thinking butter is so bad...but it makes the cod taste that much better).

15. Lastly take the cod off the grill, unwrap the aluminum foil, take off the lemon peals and sit back and enjoy your grilled cod with a nice glass of wine or beer.

Topics from lecture

One of the topics that we discussed in class last week was assessment in physical education. The three styles or themes that were mentioned were authentic, traditional, and alternative. I believe that alternative assessing would by far be the best form of assessment. One example of the alternative style of assessment as learned in Dr. Lorenzo's class was having students create their own dance video or having students assess their own progressions by using a checklist or writing in a journal. I believe that the alternative style of assessment is the best way that students will continue to assess themselves outside of the physical education setting.

Current Event

http://search.espn.go.com/yankees-win-division/

I am also going to congratulate the NY Yankees for winning the division. Living in the Mass area and being surrounded by so many Boston fans can be very tough. I have always been a big Yankee fan growing up and seeing what happened last year was very difficult. I think its going to be an awesome October and cant wait to watch every playoff game. GO YANKS!!!!!!!

Topic from chapter 1

In chapter one of Metzlers Instructional Models for Physical Education, explains that boys and girls are now taking interest in one or more forms of dance, exercise, sport, and other games. Metzler goes on and explains the importance of the physical educator to continue to learn new content knowledge that will help spark the interest of all students. I believe that Metzler is right on the money with his statements. Today many students are now into new and exciting ways to exercise. For example outdoor adventure content like backpacking, ropes courses, and snowshoeing are just a few new activities that PE teachers must continue to learn how to teach. These new and exciting activities are and will continue to help increase student enjoyment and participation in regular physical activity. That's why I believe that it is crucial for every PE teacher to keep learning new and exciting content knowledge.

your choice: Scalzo tomato sauce weekend

Every labor day weekend my family has our traditional "tomato sauce weekend." It has been going on in my family for years. Being Italian, we tend to eat a lot of pasta and sauce, so for tomato weekend we can/jar enough sauce to last our family(immediate and extended) for the year. We start early in the morning by washing each tomato carefully. After, we squeeze the water out of the tomatoes and cut them up. Next, we put the tomatoes through the blender and tomato machine, which takes out the skin and seeds. The sauce is then boiled twice and stirred. Finally, we jar the sauce. This year we had 180 jars of tomato sauce. It takes a full day to complete, but we have a great time doing it.

Learning experience: Gary Atwood

As you all know, Gary Atwood came to our class the other day to talk about copyright issues. I never knew how often copyrighting problems occur when taking pictures off the Internet. I will now always remember to get the full URL (along with permission) when taking pictures off the Internet for a PowerPoint presentation. His presentation was interesting and very informative. Thanks again Gary for taking the time to explain copyright issues to our class.

current event

image: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/21/politics/main5327341.shtml

President Barack Obama gave a speech today at Hudson Valley Community College ( a local community college near my home town and one I took summer courses at). An Advance team looked at many different colleges before choosing HVCC. HVCC, including the 13,500 students who attend, learned about the exciting news on Wednesday. Obama's speech, among many other topics, will include his plans for the federal government to invest 12 billion in the nation's two-year colleges in the next decade.

1st Blog

1. One reason why I chose Springfield College was because it was the only Graduate School that offered entry with out already having a teaching license. The other reason why I chose Springfield College was because it was known to have one of the best (if not the best) physical education programs in the MA area.
2. I believe that an effective physical education teacher/coach is a person who has the enthusiasm to properly motivate the needs of all students and athletes.
3. Some of my real-life experiences as a coach are as followed: I have been coach for both the junior varsity and varsity summer league basketball at Ichabod Crane High School for 3 summers. I also had the opportunity to be an assistant varsity basketball coach at Ichabod Crane High School before entering graduate school. I have also worked at Ichabod Crane summer basketball camp as well. As for physical education teaching, I haven't had much experience due to not having an undergraduate degree in physical education. The only real life experience I have had at teaching is PHED 510 at Springfield College and I absolutely loved it and cant wait to teach more. The last real life experience I have had is working as a camp counselor for a couple of summers.
4. My current research area topic is physical activity in elementary physical education. I'm interested in two aspects, first I want to see how much physical activity is being achieved in some elementary schools, secondly I'm interested in seeing how physical education teachers can increase physical activity levels by cutting down the time spent giving general instructions.
5. My expectations for the current class is to continue gain more know about how to become a better physical education teacher.