Good and bad examples of teaching practices

In the chapter two slides titled describing instructional models for physical education, gives some good examples of developmentally inappropriate and appropriate teaching practices. One example of general instruction that would be inappropriate, would be for a teacher to use words or terms that the students are not capable of understanding. The teacher should always use words and terms that the students can relate to in order to achieve full understanding. Another bad or inappropriate teaching technique is having the students pick their own teams during an activity. If this happens their will always be a team organized by just athletes. The teacher must select the teams before class begins in-order for an activity to be fair and everyone in the class can enjoy. These were just some interesting facts that I learned from reading this power point slide.

Teaching Experince

Last week I had the opportunity to observe undergraduate students teach adapted physical education classes. I saw many positive teaching aspects and also some negative ones as well. One positive teaching aspect that I saw was that some student teachers offered rewards for good behavior. When teaching students with disabilities one aspect that I really believe in is rewarding good behavior. A number of different student teachers that I observed offered stickers when a child completed a skill. Other rewards that I liked is that the students teachers let the child choose what activity they wanted to do for the remainder of class. One negative aspect that I observed was the lack of enthusiasm shown by some students. All physical educators must be enthused when teaching, this not only helps to motivate your students but it also helps them stay on task and increases their overall enjoyment. Every PE teacher must give it their all when teaching in efforts to have a positive effect on all students.

Outdoor Adventure

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The outdoor adventure class offered at Springfield college is something that I highly recommend taking. This class helped me learned a wide range of great teaching skills. One thing that I loved about this class was the team building exercises. Team building exercises incorporates everything from peer teaching to cooperative learning. Every person on the team must work together to solve a task. Usually their is always one person to take charge but that person also must be considerate and listen to what others have to say as well. Every team member brings a certain strength to the class, and this can be incorporated within each group activity. Another aspect of the class that I really enjoyed is the trust factor. When climbing certain activity the climber must have complete trust in their fellow student who is belaying. The student belaying must know all the proper techniques and safety issues when attempting to belay.

Overall I believe that incorporating an outdoor adventure course in all physical education programs would be very motivational to all students. Of course all high elements should be taught at a secondary PE level but their are many low elements that upper elementary students can participate in as well. Lastly all students, athletes and non athletes, can have a chance to shine and stand out during outdoor adventure. That's what makes this course so amazing.

Yankees to the World Series

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/?cnn=yes

The NY Yankees make it back to the World Series to play the Phillies. This is the first time since 2003 that the Yanks have been back to the World Series. CC Sabathia who was the MVP of the ALCS is expected to get the start for the Yankees on Wednesday Night at New York. This is an extremely exciting time for all Yankee fans. Hope everyone gets a chance to watch Wednesday nights game. GO YANKS!!!!

Introduction to a lesson

I always stress the importance of the introduction to a lesson with my movement concepts students. Some things that I tell all the movement concepts students to do is as followed: review of previous class activities, review of that days activities, SAFETY ISSUES, and have questions and demos to spark the students interests. Lastly, I believe that when you are conducting the introduction to elementary students that you should always get down to their level by kneeling on the ground with them. I was wondering if of the teachers in the class had any new and creative ways that I can make the introduction to a lesson more interesting.

Coaching Basketball

http://adeflo.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/coach-k.jpg

Coaching basketball has always been a big passion of mine. Even though its hard to coach basketball while I am in grad school due to a lot of night classes, I hope to get back into it when I become a PE teacher. My basketball coaching experience is as followed: varsity summer league basketball coach, worked at a summer basketball camp, and was an assistant varsity basketball coach at Ichabod Crane High School. One of my all time favorite basketball coaches is Coach Mike Krzyzewki of Duke University.

cooperative learning

In chapter 10 of our instructional models text, Metzler describes the concept of cooperative learning and even goes over some positives of using it. Metzler described the cooperative learning as learning teams where students are organized into teams and work together to achieve a common goal. One major advantage that I believe helps in using cooperative learning is that students are put into situations where they have to socialize and be respectful to one another. Opening good socialization networks between students is always beneficial because each student has something to offer when trying to solve a problem. Another advantage from using the cooperative learning style is that it takes away from general instruction of the physical educator. This helps to increase student involvement in class activity rather than sitting and listening to a teacher give instructions. Also working together as a team to achieve a certain goal helps to enhance overall academic achievement. I really believe that the cooperative learning style of teaching is a great teaching technique that all PE teachers can use.

Playoffs tonight

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/joe_posnanski/10/17/sabathia.game.1/index.html

The playoffs series between the Yankees and the Angels has been extremely exciting to watch. Even though the loss to the Yanks yesterday afternoon was bad, we have our top ace pitching tonight. CC Sabathia will be pitching tonight for another exciting game of playoffs baseball. The game starts at 8:00 so I hope you all will be watching the game tonight. GO YANKS!!!

Using questions for learning

Chapter 5 in Metzlers book talks about using questions for learning. Metzler describes many different forms of how PE teachers ask questions. Two specific forms of questions that I would like to talk about is convergent and divergent questions. Convergent questions (also called close-ended questions) are questions that the teacher has only 1 correct answer in mind. An example of a convergent question would be "can you show me the sideline boundary in singles tennis. Divergent questions (also called open-ended questions) are questions that have multiple choices to respond. An example of a divergent question would be "when would you use the high, deep serve in badminton. Although both questions are used a lot by a PE teacher, divergent questions would are the best as described by Metzler. Divergent questions require more thought processing by students. Overall, asking students questions are good ways to engage student in thought and also helps encourage more student understanding of PE content material.

Sport Education Model

I really believe that the Sport Education Model is one of the best models that all secondary PE teachers should use in their curriculum. The SE model is set up so that students are organized into teams where each team member has a duty or a job to take part in. The team jobs include a coach, team captain, score keepers, referees, etc. The PE teacher selects a unit like volleyball, basketball, or soccer, and each team conducts their own practices before the actual games begin. Once games begin the students mark on the class poster their own standings. At the end of each season the top seated teams compete in a final game. I really believe that the SE models is a great way to reduce general instruction time, and helps to increase student physical activity levels. Lastly the SE model is a great way to increase student motivation and helps to encourage student enjoyment in sports outside of the PE classroom.

Hiking and Camping

Camping and hiking are two things that I absolutely love to do. Every summer, spring, and early fall, my friends and I plan camping trips. We have gone camping in the Adirondacks, the Berkshires, Catskill Mountains, Lake George, and the Finger Lakes. We are always looking for new places to go so if anyone has any ideas that would be great. Even though camping requires a lot of planning and packing it is always worth it once you get there. Hiking on the other hand, doesn't require a lot of packing and is also something that I love to do as well. Hiking can also be done all year round. Even though fall is one of my favorite times to go hiking, I also love to hike with snow shoes during the winter time. Above are a few pictures of the camping and hiking trips that I have gone on.

Current Event

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/photos?photoId=2354552&gameId=291011109

The New York Yankees swept the Twins last night and move onto play the Angels in the next round of the playoffs. It was an awesome weekend for Yankee fans everywhere. The pitching is great, the hitting is awesome, and now we move on to the Angels. Sorry Boston fans, it would of been great to play you guys in the next round. GOOOOO YANKS!!!!!!

minimizing off-task behavior

Chapter 4 in Graham talks about minimizing off-task behavior. The three strategies that Graham described were as followed: back-to-the-wall, proximity control, and with-it-ness. Back-to-the-wall is describe as when a teacher is standing on the outside of the boundaries of the gymnasium so that they can better see what is going on in the classroom. Proximity control is used by simply walking over to the direction of the off task student or students while you are still teaching, and giving the students a look to let them know they are off task. Lastly, with-it-ness combining both back-to-the-wall and proximity control, this lets the students know that you are watching them at all times. If you ask me I believe that using all three would work best but since I don't have lots of teaching experience yet, I am curious to know what the teachers in our class believe works best, or maybe they have a different method. If so maybe you could share this helpful information to me.

Somewhat of a Current Event

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/09/06/massachusetts.sharks/index.html?iref=newssearch

Two great white sharks were tagged off the coast of Cape Cod on September 7. CNN reported that this was the first time that a great white shark was successfully tagged in the Atlantic Ocean off the U.S. coast. The beaches in Chatham were closed to the public after the shark sightings. CNN also reported that three of them were seen as close as 75 yards off the coastline of the beach. This article was extremely interesting to me because I thought that it was very rare for great whites to be seen so far north of the Atlantic Ocean. I guess not.

Fishing

I have been fishing with my father all my life and I absolutely love it. Every year at the end of May my father and I take our annual trout fishing trip. This is by far one of my favorite weekends of the year. We usually get up at 5am every morning and make a full day of fishing. Sometimes we don't always get lucky but when you finally get that one great fish there is nothing else like it. One thing that is great about fishing is that all age groups of people can fish. It is truly one sport that is absolutely relaxing and can be done through out your life time. The pictures above are not from our trout fishing trip but are from our family vacation in Maine.

Getting the Lesson Started

Chapter 5 in Grahams book talks about the effective ways of starting a lesson. This was also a topic that we discussed in class last week. Instant activity was described as getting a student involved with an activity as soon as they enter the physical education classroom. The two approaches that I believe work best is by using a bulletin board or using music. Using a bulletin broad can be good because the teacher doesn't have to say anything as the students enter the gym. The students will look at the activity written on the bulletin board and will start the activity right away. Music is another great approach at getting the lesson started. Activities involving music are not only fun but they help to motivate the interest of the students. When I observed one PE teacher use music as a lesson starter not only did he dance with the students but 3 teachers came into the gymnasium and participated in the activity as well. Overall, I believe that both methods are great approaches that help encourage instant student activity.