Is Efrain the real Grinch who stole Christmas???

November 19, 2008 was the day of our last visit to St. Mary's Elementary School. It was a sad day for most, but that day was my day to ruin Christmas for all the little ones even though it was more than a month prior to that actual day. My lab partner Bart came up with this fantastic game called "Grinchies versus Elf's". The objective was for the Grinchies to steal as many toys and bring them back to the Grinche's(me) cave, while the Elf's tried to retrieve them back in order to help Santa deliver all the toys in time. My role as the Grinch, was oscar worthy in my opinion as I played a grumpy anti-christmas villan. It was by far the most fun I had in any of the labs, especially after being able to capture the imaginations of the children and had them play along. I guess that was what we had to learn all along, if we can capture the imagination then we can capture a child's interest to then instill lessons that need to be learned. Signing off Efrain Reyes, see you all next semester!!! Happy Holidays

They were not going to go without KICKIN' And BOUNCIN'

Interesting title I have there right? Well folks, do not be alarmed because no kids were injured during this lab day. We went over the basics of kicking a soccer ball and dribbling a basketball. I was really proud of this lab day because I constructed and led the drills that the children were following. It was a competitive day as we were assigned the 2nd to 5th graders. I set up a station that not only requires one to dribble as they go through the obstacle, but also there was a big kick finish in which I was the GOALIE! I talked so much trash urging the students to kick passed me, but from the end results I should have kept silent as more than half the shots were in for goals. Do not judge me, eveyone has their off day, so happens it was my turn. 

Throw Like Manning...Catch Like Moss!

On this day's lab we took control over the throwing and catching circuit as my group and I set up for a great lab day with the Pre K students once again. They were so much fun to work with because there was non stop laughter between all of us. We went over throwing and catching cue's in order to repeat success. Throwing cue's were such like "non throwing foot leads, throwing elbow up, point with non throwing hand, and reach down for CHANGE". Executing the throwing task was difficult at first, but the students soon picked up on the cue's and began throwing similar to my favorite QB, Eli Manning. Similar to the cue's for throwing, we came up with some for catching. "Palms up, pinkie's touch, and pull in", was our modo for young amateur's. The girl in the picture with me was probably one of the youngest of the class, and she was terrific in both catching and throwing, but of course she's with the best...me :) .

St. Mary's Leapin' and Slidin'

Our lab for evaluating the leap and slide was a pretty fun lab day. All groups in my opinion brought their "A" game as the kids appeared to have a blast. The two students my group evaluated were Molly, a six year old first grader and five year old kindergartener Ethan. It was great evaluating them watching them have so much fun especially during our "frogs and flies" game. The objective of the game was to see which team can get as many flies in the rings as possible before the time ran out. I even tried it myself, it was not as easy as it looked

as I even tripped up trying to recover "flies" into the rings.

First Day With The Pre Ksters!

Our first day with the St. Mary's Pre K students was a blast. This is actually my first experience handling children at that age. I was a bit intimidated by the little ones, because I thought they might not respond to me very well, or maybe they might smell the nervousness in me and ATTACK!! Well thankfully one of my group members is practically an expert on dealing with kids at the Pre K age. He told me to "relax and just play", so I did play games like "hide n' seek", "Tag", and of course our "Rocket Ship" game that involved a sing along. Though grass stains came along with playing with the children, but for me being a rookie when dealing with children I even suprised myself how well it had gone

Friday's PED Mini Conference

Though I was only there for the intro part of the mini-conference I still left Park Center with a great sense of eagerness to graduate so that I can begin what I believe would be a lifetime rewarding career as a Phys Ed teacher. Looking at all the faces of all the people that sat there in the gymnasium I knew I was not alone on how I felt about this field. Everyone was gathered there friday morning because they all cared about the preservation of Physical Education as an entity. It is something they feel strongly about, not only because it is their career field, but because they genuinely care about children. The opening of the conference there was a video on a courageous young woman by the name of Katie Lynch who suffered from a rare condition that did not allow her to grow all but 28 inches tall with very close to no ablilty to stand on her feet. From birth she was given just a few days to live because of the severity of her condition, but lived on to later graduate from Regis College with a 4 year degree. With the help of a heroic adaptive Phys Ed instructor Katie trained for months to finally build the physical strength to walk the few steps as the graduation ceremony. It is because of the people in this profession normal movement becomes a reality to other children that are differently abled. It is a passion for people like us to help in all ways to bring physical activity in the lives of all our youths, this is why I LOVE P.E!!!