Finding My Way (LAB D)

The other day was my biggest lesson to teach this year so far. Not only was it bigger, but this lesson was completely all on me, there was no partner to fall back on. I took the route of orienteering because it is a non traditional sport that not a whole lot of people have even heard of. For the most part orienteering is little known here in the United States but when you get over the pond, in Europe, it is widely known. As far as my lesson, I spent a lot of time mapping out the 6 courses I designed in Park Center. That was the most difficult part the the lesson. The teaching was almost easy compared to how stressed out I was over making the courses. I felt like I had to much to say during my lesson and wanted to minimize what I wanted to say so the students could get maximum activity time it. I talked for the first few minutes explaining the basic cues for reading a compass and navigating the map. Then I let the students loose on the courses. Once they took off they seemed to enjoy trying to find the contact points on the map using the clues and compass. We ran into some difficulty because the Animal Scramble was not working as planned but the students, being as smart as they are, found a way around the problem and continued on the course. The only thing as of right now that I need to change about my teaching experience this time was that of giving feedback. I gave some feedback to the students but not enough. When I addressed a student I did not use their names. My feedback was also vague. I did not specifically give feedback about how they should be using the cues to work the compass and find the contact points. The one thing I was happy with was the Activity Time of the students. 62% of the time more than half the class was actively participating, which is great. I am feeling more confident every time I get in front of the students and I feel as though I am learning something new about myself each time. This is a great experience for me and I hope to get better.

And The Hunt Is On....

Today's lesson, November 7, was one of the most exciting classes I have had in a long time. Our two teacher assistants put together a massive scavenger hunt. The class was split into teams of 4-5 students. Each team created a flag that would represent their team and be included in all of their pictures of the clues. I always get pumped about competing against other teams. The best part of the hunt was the clues. It was not a list of points we had to go to. We had to figure out the clue before we could go to that specific checkpoint. Once at the check point we took a picture with our phones doing our team pose with our flag. We then sent it back to home base and waited to see if we got the location right. My favorite leg of the hunt was going to the racket ball courts. The team member taking the picture went to the observation deck while the rest of us went into the courts to get our picture taken. I would with out a doubt use this type of lesson when it comes to teaching. What's great about this lesson is that the students concetrate more on figuring out the clues then the actual physical activity that is taking place. You don't realize how winded you are when you get to the finish line. All you care about is figuring out the clue and getting their as fast as possible. The only con to this lesson is where all the checkpoints are. Having college students cross roads and run a half mile away from the school is not a big deal. With middle school and high school students this might not be appropriate. Plus running through the halls of a high school can lead to a huge distraction problem. We actually did things like this at my high school outside. We were able to stray quite far from the school. Our school is located in the middle of nowhere surrounded by farms and woods and the teachers roamed around supervising the students. I loved the idea of interdisciplinary teaching. They incorporated a little bit of history into the lesson with the explorers and their countries. They also incorporated team work and thinking, listening and reading skills. This lesson kept me more active than anything that I have done previously in this class. Like I said early, I was just worrried about finding the clue, collection the picture, and returning home to finish first. As you can see by my graph I was running the entire time and only stopped to take the picture before moving on. If you can't see the chart very well click here.

Can You Hear Me Now? (LAB C prt 2)

I just finished transcribing my audio for my second Speedball lesson. I do not like listening to myself talk. Sometimes you don't realize the things that come out of your mouth. Although I did improve on one important thing. I only said "umm" two or three times over a seven minute lesson. Which I feel is good. That's the one thing I remember from taking public speaking. If you can't think of what you are suppose to say pause and don't say anything until you gather yourself. Do not say "umm." In the beginning I checked for understand to see if the class still knew how to get the ball off the ground with the flick up and had a student demonstrate. After that I talked a little too much than I probably should have but we were going to play a game and I knew there was not going to be a lot of talking other than feedback. During the small sided game I had a good string of feedback given to the students. I made sure that I used their names when talking to them, which is also a good thing. Then the class was interrupted by not one injury but two. Did I forget to mention that I never went over any safety concerns? Yup. That was the one thing missing from the lesson and I paid for it. The students were okay in the end. Next time I will be sure to remember the safety.

Uhh, What About The Safety? (LAB C prt 1)

I probably committed the biggest sin as a future Physical Educator during my Speedball lesson. I forgot to mention the most important aspect of teaching, safety. I started my lesson after another lesson and a lot of volleyballs were left out on the court scattered everywhere. Instead of having the students pick them up I went straight into my lesson. That ended up being a big "no no." Besides that, I did not go over any safety statements before I sent the students off to the activities I had scheduled. Two students then got "hurt," but not too seriously. One student was hit in the face with the volleyball and the other was supposedly kicked in the face. When this happened I immediately stopped the class and attended the first student. I instructed two students to go get the school nurse as I watched over the injured student. While this was happening, other students were rough housing and a girl was "kicked" in the face. So I attended her to make sure she was okay, which thankfully she was. Both students, shaken up, sat out the rest of the lesson along the side lines. As far as the actual lesson goes, its deffeniatley hard to have multilple games going at once and pay attention to everyone and everything. As the lesson progressed I kept remembering not to turn my back to any part of the class. That was the hardest part. I kept finding myself directly facing one of the games with my back to the other. That is not a good way oversee the class. As for the sport of Speedball, I do not think that the students understood the concept of the game. There are only a hand full of students in the class that have played soccer in the past. Because nobody has really played soccer before the played Speedball in the air as in basketball and handball. Nobody wanted to play the ball on the ground as in soccer. So, next time I teach a Speedball unit I will spend a lot more time on playing the ball on the ground.