The Tastiest Lab C EVER!!!!!

In Lab C, I feel we were really put in a more difficult situation being in the squash courts. I was really nervous going in that Professor Yang was going to throw us a few curve balls because we were not able to watch all 6 courts at the same time. Thankfully nothing went wrong and I was able to notice things before they got out of hand. As you can see in my Feedback Analysis Form, there were some things that I had to attend to. Mainly it was just people forgetting to wear their goggles which could have been a big problem if someone had gotten hit in the face without them on. One issue I had to attend to was on the last court where the students were horsing around on the court and not following the appropriate cues of the serve. I contained the situation and asked them kindly to follow the schedule sheet.
On to the rest my performance. I feel it was my best one yet and the numbers do not lie. As seen on my time coding sheet. My numbers were the best they have ever been. I improved drastically on my instruction time which was usually in the 40% range was 28% today. I feel like a spoke faster than normal but was still fluent and also I feel that the practice I did a few days before helped me weed out the unnecessary facts and sayings to bring down my instruction time. Also Another style that I used was that I explained everything first then sent everyone off to play. This allowed me not to worry about people having to go back and forth from courts and wasting time. All I had to do was blow my whistle and tell them to perform the next task on the schedule. That is one reason why although my task were different and progressively got more difficult, I tried to keep them similar so it would not take as much time to explain. The only flaw that I encountered was my management time which was 22%. I did expect this though due to the student having to walk out from court 1 to the court they were participating on and then walk back at the end.

Although I was skeptical about being on the observation deck but one positive thing that really benefitted me was my ability to give feedback. It was a lot easier being able to walk down the line and watch each person for a few moments then give them quick feedback. This allowed me to give feedback to every student in the class except one, which I was really happy about.

Overall I feel the strongest part of the lesson was 2 separate areas. One being my checking for safety. As I walked to each court I made sure everyone had their goggles on and the students that were not serving had their faces covered with their rackets. The second thing that I think went really well was the theme that me and Frank used. We used our cooking theme and made it last through the whole lesson. The best part was eating the squash after, I have to say I did a pretty good job cooking it.

The weakness of the lesson did not take place that day. Our Lesson Plan was not the strongest one made. I have to say, one positive of the lesson plan process was that I now have a much better understanding of the whole process thanks to our lab assistants. I really struggled due to it being the first one I have ever done but I intend on progressing to new heights in the future.

AMERICA

Sorry Professor, but this day belongs to the USA. Today I watched an American man win a race that has been dominated by the continent of Africa for the past 27 years. 27 years ago on the first Sunday in November Alberto Salazar won the NYC marathon and since that great day America has not broken the tape. It all changed today when Mebrahtom Keflezighi, otherwise known as "MEB", outdid the highest class field the New York Road Runners have ever assembled. Going into the race I did not even think Meb could be the top American finisher but the man just persevered today, he did not worry about the pack of 10 Africans that surrounded him at all, he just followed his rhythm and realized that they were not running out his league. Yes the guys next to him have Personal Best up to 5 minutes faster than Meb but in the rolling hills on Central park South its about who has the most guts and can still grind out those 4:55's 22 miles into the race. I never thought that I would see this day as it nearly brought a tear to my eye and forced me to go out and celebrate with a nice 50 minute run with some buddies. American distance running has slowly been rising up to the levels of the Africans with help from guys like "Ritz" and "Teg" but never has anyone done something like this and it is making a statement saying that we are not going be intimidated by these men who have dominated the sport for the past few decades. We are going to run shoulder to shoulder and if they do not want to make the move then we are going to and make them suffer. I hope that this leads to more great things to come and more publicity for the great sport of Distance Running.

DTRF

Last night I attended the desmoid tumor relief foundation's annual fundraiser which is run by a very good family friend of mine. This foundation is the only one in the world supporting desmoid tumors which is pretty cool considering my closest friends and family took part in building it. It was a very emotional night as there were many speakers, one being Ted Kennedy Jr., Who spoke about his fight with cancer and losing his leg. It was pretty cool to see a guy of such stature at a fundraiser that only started 4 years ago. But of course this got me thinking about P.E. in some way and just how this is one thing that we as Physical Educators cannot prevent with our skills tumors grow just out of sheer bad luck. It can happen to any of us at any point of our lives. I watched a woman stand on the stage last night and tell us the story about how her child, who was under the age of 4, died due to a Desmoid Tumor and it just made me think how lucky we are. This is why we all have to live our lives to the absolute fullest and be healthy and be able to conquer challenges. We cannot waste it sitting in front of our x-box yelling at the madden player because he dropped a pass. Just a little wake up call to those people. IT'S FAKE!!!!! We have to explore and push our selves until we cannot do it anymore. The reason for this is because one day, not by choice we will be forced to only think about those days and not actually be involved in them

THIS IS YOUR TIME!!!

First of all let me say Jack's use of Jimmy V. inspired this post. This is my favorite speech of all time. I use it in all aspects of life. I showed it to my fellow cross-country team members my senior year of high school and we thrived off of it winning the league title for the first time in years. I feel this is apart of teaching because we have an opportunity given to us by the "Old Phys Ed" teachers, the ones who just throw the ball out their and say see you in 45 minutes. We have to go out their and change the way physical education is going. In 1979-1980 the United States was in ruins and the Soviets were dominating the Cold War. But on a cold February 22, 1980 night 20 men from the USA changed the war for good and everything changed. Well this situation is going to look a little familiar in about 15 years when we look back on it. We have to get into the field and change P.E. so we can see people be healthier and live longer. We are working to hard to fail and as Herb Brooks states; "This is your time!!! So go out there and take it."

Mini Conference

So at the mini conference on 10/9/2009 I was a man of many trades. I was the head of the registration table which was pretty intense because we wanted to make sure Dr. Malmberg was happy. He really put a ton of work into this, so I tried to stress to my committee that they had to bring their A game. Luckily everything went very smoothly and we made A TON of money, more than double what we made last year. We will be able to use that money for the state conference which is great.
Now to Dr. Judy Rink, I tried to take as much as possible from her being that she created the text for 2 of the most important classes I will take in college. My favorite line that she had was "If you give them the skills, they will be active." That line just put a huge smile on my face and made me think wow, if we as PE teachers use great cues that sticks in the student's mind they will continue to use and remember these skills which will lead to more lifetime fitness. If we make it unique the students will never want to stop later in life. My friends and I in Suffern still today play Team Handball because my teacher Mr. Dempsey brought the game to new levels got the school addicted.
At the last 2 presentations I presided (seen in the photo above) for the sport stackers which was extremely fun to be a part of. That sport is awesome. If I had unreal coordination and super fast reactions I would definitely look into doing this. Sunnie, who is a freshman here, was 4th in the world in her age group so it was really cool to watch her move the cups up and down like it was nothing. I also got a t-shirt out of it so it really was a great day.

Stack em' up

Today in my teaching lesson (click for audio)we had to adapt to the outside and some of our throws were not as good due to the strong winds. I was not that worried about it because the stack did not involve many long throws so the weather seemed like it would not play a factor in my lesson. I was pretty excited and confident going in. Overall I think it went very well. As you can see in my transcription I had very strong cues. SAT seemed to be a big hit on the day which I was pretty happy about because when I thought of those cues I had a feeling they could be good.
My main weakness right now in my teaching seems to be introduction, I speak too much. It is difficult because I feel compelled to say all the information because in a regular class they will more than likely have no idea what I am talking about when I mention the stack. Luckily my fellow students have been playing for a while so it was easier to explain, but in a class it will be a different situation, so I am trying to simulate that. All together with my demonstrations and management they had to wait about 1 minute and 45 seconds before playing which is way too long. That is the main thing that I will definitely work on for the next lab. Other traits that I need to work on are better feedback. As seem on my feedback analysis form I give feedback to more than 50% of the class which is great. But on sheet you can see it is mostly general feedback. There needs to be more specifics in my feedback. I feel the reason for this is because everyone was moving so quickly and I wanted to make sure to get to everyone so I was just spitting out “Good job” to people. Instead I should say “Nice cut” or “You looked fast there”.

Strength that showed the most in this lesson was mainly my voice. My voice is my best characteristic. It was more difficult dealing with the outside and wind but I just raised my projection a little more. Another trait that I feel I am executing in using everyone’s name. In my feedback I made sure I addressed each person that I spoke to. I feel it is important to let the student know that they are excelling and by stating their name I am specifically telling them that they are performing well. Finally I just feel comfortable in front of the class. When I am up their I just feel like I belong there and was made to do this.

Lab 2

I felt that this short lesson went great. I was happy with my voice and ability to be short and sweet which is definitely necessary in a 4 minute lesson. As you can see in my transcription I did explain a tad to much which you can also see on my time coding sheet but I refrained from saying umm and like a lot. I also tried to incorporate what I have learned in class thus far. I feel very comfortable in front of the class and I am just having fun.

On a side note, I participated in an APEM event yesterday which was pretty fun. There were two freshman there who were helping us out. I was giving them advice with cues and other tactics. It was cool to be on the other side of the spectrum.