Best and Worst Moments of Movement

For Motor Dvelopment our final "project" was to create a presentation highlighting one of our best moments of movement and one of our worst moments in movement. I choose two moments from swimming. My worst moment was my senior year of high school when we were at the NYS championship meet. My best moment was from this year at the SUNYAC championship meet.


Check Out My Presentation!!!!

St. Mary's Lab 6 - 4/23/12

Today was our last day at St. Mary's for 201. It was a very fun lab. My group was the gym group again, so we led the opening activities. What was different about today's lab was that we didn't assess any skills, so we played parachute games. The TA's led activities along with us. They went well, but we did have problems with some of the kids going through the hole that's in the middle of the parachute.

When we broke off into groups, the students that stayed with us played more parachute activites with a smaller parachute. After parachute games we played a bunch of different tag games. The students were loving tag today! We played blob tag, line tag, freeze tag, variatinos of freeze tag, regular tag, sharks and minnows....we played A LOT of tag, but the kids had fun!!! At the end we played a quick game of basketball before it was time for closing activities.

Everyone had a great time today at St. Mary's, it was bittersweet leaving them. From my experience at St. Mary's I've learned a lot, a lot more than I thought I would. One thing that I've learned is that you always need to be prepared and have back up plans for your class. You need to have the least amount of distractions as possible. You need to be aware of what age level your teaching and what is appropriate for them. I've taken all that I've learned to become a better teacher.

To see more on my reflections from St. Mary's - look at this!

St.Mary's Lab 5

Today in Motor Development lab we were at St.Mary's. The kids were filled with energy from the warm weather we had today! Today my group was the gym group- we lead the starting activities, which the rest of our class assesed the students on their kicking and basketball dribble. The age group was K-2 (about 5yrs-8yrs). My game was called Kick The Can, Christine's was Guard the Castle, Kendra's was a variation of Red Light Green light, and Lauren's was Speed Ball (a mix of basketball and soccer).

I went first with my game which focused on kicking. I thought that it went well. There was a lot of participation since it was the first activity. What I noticed was that I (along with the TA's) had to keep telling the kids to stay behind the kicking line and that they had to kick the ball,not throw it. So that's something that I need to look over and change (how I explained things). The other games we did went well I think. We had less participation throughout the games, especially when we got to the last game. The kids enjoyed all of the games though!

After we were done in the gym we went into the Cafeteria with our kids. They had a quick snack, then they had free time after in the Cafeteria. The kids played with Legos, dominos, checkers, Sorry, and some colored. I played Legos and colored with different kids. These activites showed how creative kids' minds can be!

When the lab was over with, I thought that everyone did an awesome job! It looked like all of the kids enjoyed themselves. The doors that the Special Projects group started decorated looke great so far. The other groups that I saw looked pretty successful as well!

Only one more visit to St.Mary's for PED 201!

Exergame Lab (4/9/12)

In last Monday's Motor Development lab (4/9/12) we got to play around with the Exergame equipment. We started the lab off by playing a scavenger hunt using the scanner on our smartphones. This was an introduction into what our lab was going to be about.

Using the Exergame equipment is great and it's a unique experience. Many schools can't afford this equipment without PEP Grants, so not a lot of students are exposed to this technology. Also, not everyone agrees with using technology in a physical education class. Exergame equipment allows you to mix technology with physical activity.

There's equipment for all age levels. Hyperdash & the Fisher Price stationary bike would be good for Pre-K age through about 3rd grade I think. With Hyperdash you can set up the discs around the classroom or gym and have the kids play by colors, or by numbers using there math skills. With the Fisher Price bike students peddle along to collect letters and/or numbers along the race route that is on the TV. The next level would be the bigger stationary bike, along with the stair steppers connected to the XBox, and the Dance Dance Revolution-like system.

All of the equipment uses coordination skills & physical activity while, essentially, playing video games. Today's children love to play video games. Exergame equipment allows us to merge video games and physical fitness with one another. I think that kids will love the different systems that Exergame has to offer. It will make students want to be more involved during class. I think that using Exergame in physical eduaction classes is an excellent idea!!

Infant Development Concert 2012

Last Wednesday (4/11/12) in PED 201 class everyone performed their Infant Development skits live at Poolside in C-State's Parkcenter. My group, The Physettes, performed "A Little Less Drinking, A Little More Caring" - a remix of Fall Out Boy's "A Little Less Kiss Me, A Little More Touch Me". Even though we had a little technical difficulty with our background music, I thought that we did a good job. I thought that all of the groups did an awesome job getting into their performances, despite being nervous!! It was a great experience to be in an uncomfortable position and having to perform, it sets us up for situations like interviews, being in front of larger groups, and teaching.

Check out our video skit as well as the live performance :)

Here are some still photos from our performance!

Lab 4 at St. Mary's - 3/26/12

This week at St.Mary's my group was the Special Projects group. We were responsible for creating a bulletin board and closing activities- game, song, and cheer. We didn't have a theme this week. The skills we assessed were the overhand throw and the catch. (click here to see my observation worksheet)

The gym group did a great job with opening activities. I didn't think the Trash Can game they played would've turned out as well as it did, they had to force the kids to stop playing because they were having fun!
Once the kids broke off into their different stations my group updated the bulletin board in the gym. Lauren came up with the design and had all of the supplies, the rest of us helped her put it together. It turned out great!! After we were done, we played with some of the kids until it was time for our ending activities. One of the kids we played with was a 12 year old boy that was very good at soccer. I was very impressed with his skills (and so were the other girls in my group).

Christina's ending game was a mix between rock, paper, scissors and tag. There were two teams, each team had to disscuss what they were going to throw (rock, paper, or scissors), then the teams lined up. Which ever team lost had to run back to their base line without getting tagged, if they got tagged they had to go over onto the winning team. The kids liked this game. After the game I did the song Herman the Worm. A few of the kids already knew what it was from camps they had gone to (this is where I learned the song originally). I think the kids thought that the song was entertaining, but not very fun...it didn't go over as well as Ryan's Baby Shark song went the other week (Lab 3 I think). Kendra did an ending cheer.

The Great Debate

In Monday's class (2/26/12) we had a debate in class about which type of curriculum we should use-  Sticks in Sports, Lifetime Activities, or Skills Theme Advocates. There was a mock school board and a mock media crew on top of the three advocating groups. The group I was in was the Skills Theme group. I am a big fan of lifetime activities and stick sports, but I believe that at the elementary and middle school levels of PE the curriculum should be skills theme based. Children need to learn these fundamental skills to be more diverse with their bodies. Having these fundamental skills helps with the other two groups- which I would incorporate into the later levels of education (late elementary, middle and high school). Our group's statement was that we are the basis to all sports (the other two groups).

Having a Skills based curriculum is easier for younger learners. It doesn't focus on a couple of specific skills, it focuses on a bunch of locomotor skills that create more opportunities to try different sports/activities if the child chooses. By learning these skills at a young age it helps with performing more difficult skills later in life and helps a child be more coordinated.